Unstable Alliance
by Master Porky Minch
Summary: After Black discovers the ruins of Sotaba, a village surrounded by mystery, he discovers that the shiki are somehow rising a second time. Undead humans, huge conspiracies, and a crap load of secrets nobody knows about? Just another normal day in the life of Pokemon Trainer Black.
1. Sotaba Discovered

Unstable Alliance

Author's Note: ...I'm just gonna let this thought soak into your mind for just a second. I know what you're thinking, "How the Hell can you take an anime as dark as Shiki and crossover it with something a little more light-hearted like Pokemon?" The answer to that: I'm a mentally unstable prick.

Also, a big shout out for KinghtOfLelouch, if it wasn't for you buddy, I probably would have never come around to uploading this.

Disclaimer: You know damn well.

BEGIN!

Sotaba, a once peaceful and small village, now nothing but a heap of ashes and ruins.

January 22, 1998,

It had been 5 years since the great shiki hunt had taken place in what was once a home for people, and even to that day, there have been no attempts to rebuild or replace what was once up there. One fire that spread out through the forest, a great number of firemen who just couldn't extinguish the burning trees, and within a couple of days, though they were able to evacuate everybody, the fire spread and destroyed all of Sotaba.

There had been much talk and rumors about projects to turn the ruins of the lost colony into a big city, and they did have the resources to do so, but there had been a rumor going on that the village had been swarming with corpse demons, and that for all they knew, there could still be one or 2 roaming around that area, having no home and nowhere else to go. Though it sounded like a bunch of bullshit, there were some people who believed them somehow, and this fear of these demons caused paranoia. It even got to the point where they actually banned any work projects to be done in that area, just in case there was any of these corpse demons that managed to escape.

Though theses rumors had spread fear into anyone who's heard them, there was also a great deal of curiosity that was born from it. Those that believed in the rumors were horrified to see History Channel and National Geographic planning to do a few documentaries about the place, and even heard people whispering about how they were planning to go up there and debunk the whole superstitious demon nonsense. They actually reported it to their current 'president' Seishin Muroi, a well-respected monk who was rumored to have come from Sotaba itself. The minute he heard that people were planning to go up the the ruins of Sotaba, he seemed to have a strange reaction of fear, as if there was something in that village that he was trying to hide. As a result of all of these things, he immediately made it known that there was to be absolutely no access into the ruins of that village, and even had a special defense system installed in it, just in case somebody decided to go up there anyway.

He was hoping that everybody would eventually stop caring about the whole ordeal and the whole thing would just blow over within a couple of weeks, but ever since people heard the news of that new defense system set up specifically to keep people out of that village, there have been a swarm of conspiracy theories shooting this way and that. Some people have theorized that Seishin knew about what happened to that village, or maybe was directly involved, others made claims that he had built some sort of secret government building or organization in that area and didn't want anyone to interfere. Some even had the nerve to make theories that these corpse demons really did exist, and he was actually one of them. This was quite a bold claim, but the debunk of it wasn't helped by the fact that he seemed to have never come out except at night or on really cloudy days.

With the rest of the claims that he was involved with its destruction or he already built something secret there, they began to believe that the whole corpse demon claim was actually started by Seishin Muroi himself as a cover up story to keep people from going in there to see what was really going on. Several news reporters time and time again brought that subject up when they had any rare chances to interview him, and he just simply and calmly said that the ruins to the village were shut down for safety reasons alone. People believed this calm and collected answer and soon began to forget all about the whole thing, though some of the people couldn't help but think that maybe he was a little too collected when they brought that question up. Almost as if he had rehearsed what he was to say if they brought that question up.

There have been quite a few more ridiculous theories that arose, such as stuff like alien technology or deals with extraterrestrials, but when he was asked about these kinds of theories in an interview, he said that they sounded so ridiculous they were laughable, which he said after taking a good 30 seconds to laugh at such silly myths. He didn't seem too nervous or too calm with all these theories, quickly debunking all of them. They didn't even bother to ask him about the theories that he was a corpse demon, since they were by themselves the entire essence of stupidity, but he took back to his too collected answer when they asked again why nobody was allowed in there. And when he was asked what would he do if somebody would manage to sneak in there, and to this, he returned to his normal posture and replied with the utmost confidence, "I won't have to worry about that. That security has an extremely high-tech security system that each runs on its own individual monitor." That was what they showed on the news channel the next day, but there was a rumor that he asked them to leave out something he said, something about only him and one other person knew all of the passwords to the security system.

With all of these thoughts playing in the people's heads, as was intended by their leader, they eventually began to forget about the whole Sotaba thing, and never spoke about it again. However, there were still people who believed there was something more to all these claims made by their leader, but they kept their mouths shut, since there was no way they could prove that he was hiding something. Some people who went up there found a huge metal gate with tons of defensive weapons, and even when they could open the gates or deactivate the weapons using the password, they didn't know any of the other passwords to shut down everything else. With the rumor that one other person knew every single password, they searched for the person in secret, but quickly gave up when they found nothing.

Sotaba had then been a subject for fairy-tales and ghost stories for quite some time, however, 15 years later, there rose one more person who wanted to know the truth, who had heard of Sotaba only from blurry memories of stories his dad told him, how to this day, he still thought that there was something more to that place.

February 18, 2014,

Standing by the metal gates, at the computer in which you typed down the passwords to deactivate the defenses that guarded Sotaba, was a purple bug-like robot with red eyes, at least 6'4" in height counting the big blaster it had attached to its back. It had it's mechanical arms typing things down on the keypad, while a wire from its blaster connected to the computer. Its name was Genesect, and it was hurriedly yet carefully trying to hack into the system so that it could open the gate.

Only a couple of feet away from the gate were 3 more creatures. One of them was a pig-like creature that walked on 2 feet and was about 6'6". He was mostly orange with black legs and arms, with some kind of black shirt-like area at his belly, which had yellow patterns that looked like sideways letter s's. He also had a black tail, and a beard of fire under his chin, complemented by 2 black eyebrows. He was of a species known as Emboar, but everybody ho knew him knew well to call him by the name he was given by his trainer, and that was Destroyer. "I told you we should have brought a board game over." he said in a voice that sounded like Tiny Tiger from Crash Bandicoot Warped. "We could have played an entire game of Monopoly by the time it would take to do this."

"Come now Destroyer, what he's trying to do in an hour would have taken an entire year for any of the rest of us to do." replied one of the other creatures, who spoke like a young queen of England. She was 6'7", and she floated in the air slightly instead of standing, since she had no feet. She was entirely pink, save for red 'lips', and a puffy white collar at her neck. She also had a tentacles which were in place of arms. Her name was Ghosta, and she was a female Jellicent.

"Well, perhaps we could have at least had some kind of lunch before we came here. We haven't eaten since breakfast, and I'm already hungry again." said the the third creature. She spoke with a voice that seemed slightly demonic, but mostly soothing. She was a floating dragon, about 6'4", and she was mostly blue, with a purple belly and black fur on her arms and her neck and head. These arms each had a small head in the place of hands or paws. She was a Hydreigon named Angel of Darkness, though for the sake of being short and sweet, she was usually referred to as Angel of D.

Standing there, among the 4, leaning against a burnt oak tree, was a boy, 16-years-old, soon to be 17. He was rather tall, about 6'2", and weighed roughly 217lbs. He wore a pair of black and red shoes, along with a pair of comfortable jeans, and a purple shirt that said: Official Member of the Piss and Moan About Everything Club (which didn't really exist) under a blue jacket. He had brown hair which was mostly hidden under his red and white hat with a black Pokeball print on it, and an arm bag which he placed down near him on the ground. His name was Pokemon Trainer Black, and he wanted to discover the secrets of Sotaba Village all for himself and his team.

Black was from the Unova Region, but he had a habit of suddenly disappearing and being back within a little while, so whenever he secretly went on one of his little trips, there was barely anyone who noticed who actually worried about him. He had become the champion of all of Unova, had seen and recorded the data of every living Pokemon to date in his Pokedex, and he had a sister and 2 friends he always seemed to like, though for some reason, Black felt like he was just never happy. Even when he had chosen from every single one of his Pokemon, 6 to be his special team who would help him with literally everything, he just didn't seem satisfied with everything he had. At first he tried to put it all behind him, but his dissatisfaction soon turned into self-disappointment, to the point where he couldn't see anything positive now, and thought about just ending his life since there was nothing more he could accomplish.

Then, by some kind of miracle, he had remembered that his dad had told him story after story about how he was one of the people who tried so desperately to get into that wretched village. He had remembered how his father had practically obsessed over that village, and even mentioned going to it as something he wish he could have done before he... passed away.

Black's father died when he was only 10-years-old, and Black always swore to his father that he would see the land his father had tried so desperately to get in. Finally, after 6 years of waiting, he and his special team deployed themselves to the city, where they've spent a good hour or so waiting for one of their members of their family to get done with the hacking.

"Genesect, please don't feel like I'm rushing you, but if you could, could you tell me how much longer you have to take to hack that main control? We've still got at least 20 other systems to hack through after that one, so we're kind of on a schedule, if you know what I mean." Black replied as he was getting sick of his Pokemon's pissing. He loved them more than he loved his own life, but there was only so much of everything he could tolerate.

Genesect responded in a fully mechanical voice, "HACK COMPLETED. MAIN FRAME UNLOCKED."

"Ok, so from what I understand, with that one thing fully hacked through and through, you should be able to breeze through the other ones, correct?"

Genesect looked over to his trainer, and then he responded in a voice somewhat different than the one before. When Genesect is naming information like any other robot, it sounds just like any other robot, but when it's just talking in his own way, it sounds exactly like Dr. N Gin back in Crash Bandicoot 2 and Crash Bandicoot Warped. "Yes, all the other defenses should be incredibly easy to hack..." it said in its half human half mechanical voice that had something in it that reassured him there was a down side. "...however, due to the quantity of the other defenses, since I have to hack all of them individually, it will be quite the process. It will be easy, as I said before, but I'm still going to need a few minutes to fully get it down."

Black sighed somewhat annoyed, but then remembered that Genesect was doing everything it could. "That's ok buddy, just take your time. After all, you're the only one that could possibly get us in without risking any casualties." He gave the robot a kiss on the head, letting him know that no matter what would happen, he still loves it. Afterwards, he went over to his bag, pulled out a yellow piece of paper with Heal Powder, a herb crushed and beaten into a powder. He used his finger to set the Heal Powder into a straight line, and wrapped into a cylinder with the paper. He took out a lighter, lit the butt of Heal Powder, and began to smoke it just like a cigarette. Afterwards, he leaned back against the tree and rested his eyes for a minute. He would wait patiently while his Genesect worked.

Then, he remembered that he had the other 2 members of his team doing something too. So, he decided to call them over. "Slash! You there?" he called, but got no response. Black shook his head, hoping his Pokemon hadn't taken a nap on the job again. "Slash, where are you?!" he called again. This time, from the trees leapt down a mantis-like Pokemon that stood on 2 feet and was approximately 6'4". He was yellow with a green leaf on the back of his head, 2 green legs, and 2 green blade-like leaves he used for arms. He was a Leavenny, and he was of course known as Slash. "Anything we should know about?"

"I scouted 50 miles ahead of the South and the East, but I didn't find anyone coming this way." Slash said in a Spanish accent.

"Slash, be honest with me, did you try to take a nap during some of this time?"

"...Si..." Slash replied, putting his head down in shame that he let his trainer know that so easily.

Black could only snicker and pat his Pokemon on the shoulder. He would have had quite the talk with Slash, but his attention was diverted when a male Unfezant swooped down. It was green and grey with a pink mask-like thing on it's forehead. "Ah, Birdy, there you are. Anyone?"

The Unfezant, known as Birdy, raised his left wing to be a pointer, and spoke in a German accent, "The only population within a 50 mile radius at the North and the West is a small village just 45 miles to the West of here."

Black smiled happily. "Perfect, then if any smart-ass down there decides to come snooping around, hopefully we'll have gone in there, gotten whatever we need to fulfill my promise to my father, and be heading out of here. Thank you, all of you. Absolutely none of this could be possible had the 6 of you not been here to help me." He then leaned back against the tree once again, and closed his eyes, hoping maybe to get a couple minutes of nap time until he was ready to enter to see what exactly was in those ruins.

XXX

Even when he had shut his mind down, even when he was so close to finally reaching that destination, the image still haunted him.

That memory of him as a 10-year-old, waiting in the emergency room. His father, for whatever reason, had decided to speak to the members of his family individually. He had already spoken to his mother, and he was speaking to his older sister at the moment. Black would never imagine why, out of his 3 loved ones, he decided to talk to Black last, but he didn't care. He could only hope that he would have some time to talk to him.

He could only sit there and remember all that they had done together before he had gotten sick. Whether it was fishing, playing ball, or even just going on leisurely strolls around Route 201, they had done quite a number of things as a family. And now, all because of one little sickness, that was all about to end.

Black took one look up, and saw a painting of the Binding of Isaac. It was the part where the angel was staying Abraham's hand, telling him not to kill his son. "Why are you letting this happen?... Why must I hurt so?..."

Just then, his sister walked out of the room, her brown eyes overflowing with tears of sorrow. He didn't know what he told her, but he could tell that she was completely heart-broken. She immediately ran to their mother and hugged her while crying in her shirt.

The nurse walked out, and then said, "Black... he will speak to you now." Black didn't hesitate one bit, and he ran into the cold room, where he heard absolutely nothing but the beep of a machine, indicating he was still alive.

His father looked terrible, it was obvious that his condition was getting worse. Nobody really could explain how or when he got sick, they just knew he was showing symptoms a few days after they drove a Skorupi out of their house. The doctor could only assume that somewhere late at night, the Skorupi might have gotten back in the house and stung his father. They were rather small, but one jab from their stingers could extract a sufficient amount of toxins to kill a man within a couple of days.

Despite looking completely pale, and his face was that of great pain, he was still the same man who Black remembered being with his whole life. It was almost killing Black, to be so young and to watch his father die like so. He had always felt pity for kids who had this happen to them, but he only assumed that it would never happen to him, and that he would be with his dad forever.

His dad heard Black close the door, and looked over to see his son one last time. Black didn't even know how his father could even smile with the knowledge that his life is failing by the minute. How could he possibly feel any happiness when he's about to die? "Hey Black... how you doing?" He broke into a terrible fit of coughing.

"Dad, please don't die! I can't do this without you!" Black shouted as he put his hands on his father's chest.

His father, after ending the coughing, just looked at him with that same smile on his face. "I... I wish I could decide that, but... I-" he began, but was interrupted by another fury of coughs. "...I can't... my time is coming to an end... you and the others will have to make your own way without me..." Black only stood there, gazing at his beloved father with a waterfall of tears gushing from his eye sockets.

"Now... my son, I... I wanted to ask you something... do... you... remember the stories I once told you... about the village of Sotaba?"

"Sotaba... yes father, I could never forget those stories." Black said, his voice beginning to break up. "You always told those stories to mom, White and I when we would go on camping trips. Mom said you were only wasting your time telling those stories, and White never really paid attention, but I always couldn't get enough of your stories dad... I always heard eagerly to your every word, wanting to know what happened..."

"Yes... your mother and sister wouldn't have cared had I told them this, but... I thought maybe you would like to know... the village... it did exist..." Black stared at him, still crying silently as his father slowly and painfully continued through choked breaths and wheezes. "For... for 14 years, the ruins have been there, unchecked and well guarded by the man that runs our country right now... I've always wanted to find out what was in there, but I never could... I only... wish... that I could... could..."

Black never had a chance to know what his father was going to say, because before he could say anything else, his eyes closed shut, and his breathing stopped forever.

"...No... no. No! Dad, don't go!" he shouted as he began to shake his father's body, hoping to get some kind of response. "Open your eyes dad! Please open your eyes! Please!"

The doctor came in and grabbed Black's hand, trying to lead him out of the room. "I'm sorry Black, but there's nothing we can do for him."

Black tried to struggle out of the man's grip, but he couldn't. "Dad! Dad, no! Why did it have to be you?!"

The look on Black's face when he exited the room gave White and their mother all the news they needed. Immediately, after the doctor gave a shake of his head, White burst into tears and cried, hugging their mother, the only parent they had left. "Why mommy?! Why did he have to die?! There was so much he had to live for!"

"I know sweety, and I wish we could do something... but we can't." their mother said, also starting to tear up.

Black ran to the bathroom, and began to cry over the sink. He didn't even cry like he was when he was a little baby. He began to blame himself for his father's death, and thought there was something he could have done to stop it from happening. "I'm so sorry daddy! It's all my fault! I could have saved you! I'm so sorry!" he wailed as he didn't even look into the mirror.

Just then, those words that his father had said seemed to have rung in his head as if he was there, talking to his son. "_I only... wish... that I could..._"

Black looked to the mirror and saw his tear struck face. He stared at it, breathing hard for a few seconds. The crying had left him rather breathless. After a few seconds, he looked to the air and gave out a loud shout of sadness and anger. "I... I know the village is real... I know because you told me... I swear to you father, I will see Sotaba! I will go into there, and be the first to see what was really there! I'll do it... for you dad."

At that time, his mother walked in and told him it was time to go home. Black nodded and went with her, letting only his promise into his head...

XXX

Black really didn't know how long he had been resting, nor did he know if any of his Pokemon were doing the same thing. All he knew what that he was awakened by a sudden electronic ringing sound.

He looked over back at the gate where his Genesect still was, and all of his Pokemon were looking at the robot bug too. Almost as if it could see this, Genesect turned towards the others, and something about the whole thing made Black know that had his Pokemon the ability to move its face, it would have the proudest grin on its face. "The hack is fully complete, every single defense weapon is shut down." it spoke in its half human half robotic voice. "All we need to do is open the gate... would you like to do the honor, Black?"

Black walked over to the computer with a genuine smile on his face. "Genesect, my friend, you and all the others are just too good for me, aren't you? Sometimes I wonder what I ever did to deserve such good friends." he said as he moved over to the computer. Pressing the button on the screen, the mechanical doors opened, revealing a whole field of ashes and burnt trees. "Destroyer, use Blast Burn on the ground, I want to do a quick bomb check." Destroyer, walked over to the gate, charged a ball of fire from his mouth, and fired it at the ground, causing a huge explosion, and made a small crater in the ground. If there were any mines in that area, they were all blown up now.

With that in mind, all 7 of them took step into the ruins, and Black announced in a very proud voice, "My friends, I would like to congratulate us all. We're the first creatures in over 20 years that set foot into the burnt village of Sotaba."

They all looked around, and even Black couldn't quite hide his disappointment at the sight. They were expecting something a little more exciting than just a field of ashes, but that's all they saw, ashes as far as the eye could see. "So, we came here, knowing all of the rumors of some secret building or whatever, and this is all we get?" Slash said in his usual Spanish accent.

"That doesn't really matter much, Slash. Believe me, I'm a disappointed too, but it was my father's life dream to get into this village, and I promised on his deathbed that I would enter in his place, and I did." Black said sternly. "Now that we came in here, I suppose we can leave now."

"But Black, we spent so much time getting in here just to leave... don't you think that your father may have also wanted to know why this place was closed down?" Destroyer asked. Usually Destroyer was mainly the one who acted before he thought, but as an Emboar, he naturally cared deeply for his friends, and he wasn't really an idiot, even though he didn't think much.

Black took a big drag of his Heal Powder cigarette, as if it was to help him process what his Pokemon just said. "Hm... that's quite a good point Destroyer... and to add to that, it would be just a waste of time if we just came here and found absolutely nothing, wouldn't it?... Hm... ok, here's what we'll do." he said as he took another drag of his butt of Heal Powder. "We'll split up, all 7 of us, and we look for anything that might catch our interest. Any buildings, machines, remnants, find whatever we can, and we'll regroup when I say so." The plan sounded perfect for all 7 of them, and they split up to find something noteworthy.

They searched by themselves for over 15 minutes, and Black only assumed that neither of them found anything, since he got no reports. He sat down for a bit to take a break, grabbing another thing of Heal Powder from his bag to make another butt for himself. While he was lighting the Heal Powder, his Xtransceiver began to ring. "Ugh, who the Hell could be calling now?" he questioned as he got it out of his pocket and checked the caller id. The minute he saw it, he let out a sigh just before answering it. "Alright White, what did I miss this time?"

On the screen of the Xtransceiver, it showed the image of a 16-year-old girl with a pair of short jean shorts, a white sleeveless shirt that slightly left her belly revealed, and brown hair, some of it under a black and white hat with a pink Pokeball print on it. Her name was White, Black's older sister, and she looked pissed. "You better have a very good excuse for missing Bianca's birthday party!" White said very angrily.

"Bianca's birthday party?" Black said rather casually. He took out his journal and flipped through the pages a few times. He usually used his journal as a planner in which he wrote important future events. From what his journal said, Bianca's party wasn't until the 14th of April. "Hm..." He then got out another journal from his bag, one that he used last year when he first started his adventure. He flipped through that journal and saw that last year he wrote Bianca's birthday being on the 14th of February, Valentines Day. "Oh, Christ... I missed that?"

Black really didn't mean to miss that party; he really liked Bianca, but the way he asked it in his usual casual voice made White think that he could care less about the party. "Bianca was crushed when she realized you didn't come, you inconsiderate asshole! She's spent the last couple of days in her bedroom, crying because she thinks you hate her!"

"Oi... Bianca's a good friend and everything, but she comes up with the biggest bullshit sometimes, you know that?" he asked as he took his first drag of the Heal Powder. "Besides, even if I did go, her father would have grabbed me by the neck and thrown me out the door in 10 seconds flat. You know how much her parents despise me."

"Well when you and your Pokemon keep teaching Bianca ways you can kill a man just by poking them in their... wait, what are you... oh my God. You're smoking again, aren't you?" White has had plenty of talks about this kind of thing with Black. They both just don't have one of those perfect family relationships; White believes that as the older sibling, she has the right to boss Black around and tell him what to do, while Black believes that as the younger sibling, he has the right to ignore just about anything and everything she tells him. "I told you not to do that like 10 times this month alone, didn't I? Even our mom told you not to do that. Why do you keep doing that?"

"Don't worry dear sister, it's only Heal Powder wrapped in paper, it won't hurt me."

"It's not your health I'm worried about, I'm just making sure that our mother doesn't have too much to worry about." Black rolled his eyes, and took another drag of his Heal Powder. "Now, back to what I called for, Bianca is absolutely devastated, that you didn't come."

Black sighed in annoyance and pinched the bridge of his nose. "...Ok, well, uh... did you get the gift I got for her at least?"

"I have my Haxorus going to our house now to pick it up."

"Ok, just give that to her, tell her that you called me, I said I had to go do something pretty important, and that I'm really sorry that I missed her party."

White was at least a little satisfied that she was able to get that through to him. "Ok... also, I... I have another question-"

"Just as her out already." Black said as he almost facepalmed, but was able to stop himself from doing so when he saw he still had the lit butt in his hand. "You've been in love with Bianca, for, what, 3 or 4 years now? Just go over, ask her on a date, and if anyone makes fun of you because you're a homosexual, I'll just send Angel of D to kill them, ok?" Black and White didn't have the best relationship, but they still did care for each other, and would do anything to make sure the other didn't get hurt (even if it meant murder).

White sighed nervously a bit. "...Ok, just take the part about sending your dragon to kill someone out of the equation, and I'll be perfect." With that, White hung up, and Black continued to think about what he was going to do while his Pokemon were looking for anything interesting... which, he guessed, he was supposed to be doing to.

"Well, I suppose I could waste a couple of minutes of my life." he said as he got up and took out his Dowsing Machine. He remembered it was a gift that Bianca gave to him and the other 2, since she had accidentally ordered 4. He didn't remember many of the events of that day, he just knew that ever since Bianca gave him that, he was abusing the crap out of it. He had used it to find hundreds upon thousands of treasures, which he and his Pokemon hide, along with all of their other valuable items or things they don't use in their 'secret base'.

He hadn't spent 2 minutes in Sotaba using that Dowsing Machine, and her had already found about $500,000 worth of items. Jewelry, rings, gems, even a few wallets that had somehow survived the village's destruction, and Black didn't have to feel bad about stealing them since they all most likely belonged to a dead person. "Hehehe. Oh, Bianca, had you told me that using this thing would let me find such valuable items, I would have kissed you the minute you gave it to me." he said as he stuck a marriage ring into his bag.

As he got up, he activated his Dowsing Machine again, and it told him there was an item 20 steps in front of him. "Alright, let's check it out." he said as he walked a few steps forward.

He checked the machine again to make sure he was at the right place, but then he noticed something. According to the Machine, there wasn't just one item right below where he was standing, but it said there were hundreds of them. "What in the... I better see this."

He had spent 5 minutes digging until he finally found anything, but he didn't like what he saw. What he saw was one huge pile of human bodies wrapped in white cloth, most of them looking like they had something sticking out of their chest. He, being the curious man that he was, he took one of the bodies that didn't have a stake in the chest and unwrapped it by cutting open the cloth with a 5-inch switch blade he always hid in his pocket. He lift the body out of the cloth, and examined it for a bit. It was the body of a female with blue hair. She wore a pair of blue jeans and a white sweat shirt. She looked like she had been stabbed in the chest. She also looked rather well reserved, as if she'd only been dead for a couple of days, which made Black somewhat uneasy.

"Hm... well, maybe this may count as something noteworthy." With that in mind, Black put his walkie-talkie to his ear to talk to Genesect.

"Did you find anything?" Genesect asked.

"Oh, I found something alright... in fact, I think it would be best if you and the other 5 just come over here and see for yourselves."

"Ok, I'll get them there as soon as possible. And by the way, after we regroup, I suggest we should leave here, from what it looks like, a storm's on the brink of appearing." Genesect said before he began to round up the others.

Curious about what Genesect was talking about, Black looked up to the sky and was greeted by a bountiful collection of storm clouds, sometimes hearing a rumble of thunder. "Ah great, just what we needed." he muttered to himself as he took a big drag of Heal Powder.

He didn't know how long it would take for his team to get there, so, in order to pass the time, he did something that everyone would judge him to be psychotic for; he sat down and began to talk to the corpse he found. "You know, perhaps there was some kind of economic advantage that came with burning your village to the ground, but for the life of me, I just don't see it. I once burned a village before... well, not exactly in real life, of course, it was in a video game. I actually get a lot of people tell me that the games I like are either really stupid or childish. Though in reality, they're the ones who are playing those games where everybody online is acting like a total bunch of babies whenever they don't get something their way."

It was a mystery to everyone, including Black, as to why he always talks to inanimate objects. Perhaps it was because they couldn't argue when he stated his opinion. "Personally, I don't fully see the appeal of games like Halo, GTA or Minecraft. I mean, Call of Duty is ok, I suppose, but all 4 of those games are highly overrated, and it's all everyone freaking talks about! Well then again, I guess I'm not one who would get any of it. I'm just one of those fantasy kind of guys you know, mostly satisfied with stuff about mythical creatures and super powerful weapons, stuff like that. And then there's the news I got about the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One from my friend Cheren, who got both of them for his birthday. From what he said, both of them just really aren't worth the hundreds of dollars his parents paid for it, and that it would be a lot better if I just stuck with what I got for now."

On and on he went, like he was talking to some kind of distant relative he hadn't seen in over 50 years. "Honestly, I've never owned an Xbox in my entire life, and the only time I would probably ever buy a PlayStation 4 is if they made a Soul Calibur VI for it. Until then, I think I'll just stick to my friend's advice and just stay with what I've got. I do have a PlayStation 3. My favorite game on it is Soul Calibur V, nothing better than just having a good game where you can slash the crap out of others and not get in trouble for it in my opinion. I guess maybe that makes me a little bit twisted, but I suppose it could be a lot worse. When you really enjoy Call of Duty, you're really enjoying shooting the crap out of everybody without any feeling of remorse or pity."

He would have gone on a lot longer, had the event that happened next not transpired. While he was about to say something else, the arms of the corpse suddenly shot up and grabbed his shoulder, taking him by surprise. "What the fu-" he began, but couldn't finish as the corpse opened her mouth, and bit Black right on his neck.

He gave a sharp and loud scream of pain, hoping that his Pokemon would be able to hear him. Suddenly, he felt like his blood was leaving his shoulder. It felt as if... as if she was sucking it right out of his body.

Immediately, he grabbed the woman's shoulder's and tried to push her away from him. However, the woman seemed to be a lot stronger than what any person should be, and her fangs were locked firmly in place to his throat. Nevertheless, he continued to push as hard as he could, which his efforts gradually began to deteriorate as he was losing more and more blood. "Destroyer!" he shouted out as a way to beg his Pokemon for help. "Destroyer! Where are... are..." his voice began to fade out as he was starting to lose too much blood. He had to find a way to get her off of him.

In one terribly desperate attempt, he managed his hand to the pockets of his pants, and pulled out his little pocket knife he always carried around. He really didn't want to ever use such a weapon, but in the long run, he realized that it was either he killed her, or she killed him.

In one swift movement of his arm, he stuck the 5-inch blade right into the woman's belly. The woman, shocked from the attempt of self defense, released his neck, and gave a small yelp of pain. Black took the blade out, and for good measure, he slashed the woman across the face, causing her to turn around, still holding her stomach as the crimson blood fell to the ashes below.

Black would have done more, but he had lost a tremendous amount of blood from the woman's surprise attack, and was terribly dizzy from the loss of blood. The knife and the Heal Powder cigarette both falling out of his hands, he collapsed to the ground, where he sat with his back against a tree, holding the bite marks on his neck to try to prevent further blood loss. Despite his efforts, the blood was oozing out of the bite, slowly squeezing its way through the cracks of his fingers.

Black brought his eyes up, hoping to see one of his Pokemon standing there to help him, but became horrified when he saw the woman standing there, as if completely unharmed, save for the blood dripping past her cheek and her stomach. But then, as if he spoke too soon, the slash mark across her cheek seemed to have completely healed itself, and her stomach was no longer bleeding. "W...what are you?" Black asked, quivering in fear as his vision kept shifting from clear to blurry.

The woman said nothing in response, but instead walked closer to Black, and standing only a few inches away from him. They both stared at each other silently, Black seemingly being hypnotized by the woman's eyes of red and black. He found these demonic eyes very chilling, but at the same time, they were the most beautiful sight he had ever seen. It was almost like his Angel of Darkness, except the latter one didn't try to kill him.

Just then, the storm that Genesect had predicted came to be. The winds began to howl, almost threatening to topple the burnt trees as they furiously shook at the force of the strong gales. The rain began to come down as if a whole family of Kyogres suddenly decided to pay a surprise visit to these wretched remains. Thunder occasionally appeared, complemented with a booming sound of thunder not far behind it.

After a few seconds of staring, the woman opened her mouth, revealing the 2, blood-stained fangs that she had used to bite Black. "Please... don't..." Black begged weakly, but the woman seemed set on biting him a second time. He turned his head to the right, and closed his eyes, knowing that his demise was about to come.

Just then, when all hope seemed lost for Black, he heard the woman give a sharp scream of pain, and felt something slimy and soft come into contact with his cheek. He hesitated before opening his eyes to look back and see what was going on.

He was a little grossed out when he looked to hes pelvis, feeling whatever was on his cheek falling onto it. Sitting on his lap was a bloody, ripped stomach, looking almost like it was still alive. He didn't understand why this thing had fallen on him until he looked back up to the woman.

There she was, her eyes closed and her fists twitching in agony as blood was flowing from her clenched mouth like a volcano. As Black continued to look at her, he finally took the time to notice Destroyer, his Emboar, right behind the woman, with his left arm stuck right through her stomach. Despite how disgusted Black was with the sight, he couldn't help but feel a sense of relief. The woman was obviously a lot stronger and faster than what Black could ever dream to be, but he had yet to meet anything in this world, human or Pokemon that could best his first Pokemon when it came to physical strength.

Destroyer yanked his arm out of the woman's stomach, and let the blood flow through. It was accompanied by a few entrails, making Black almost throw up just by seeing them slowly slide out of her belly. Destroyer, wanting to make sure she was down and out, raised his right arm, and slammed his bulky fist into the woman's head, knocking her to the ground. Black couldn't really tell whether she was alive or not, but he could tell that she was knocked out.

Black stared at the now still body of the woman. She didn't seem to be breathing at all, so does that mean she's dead for sure this time?

Not likely. Black didn't feel her breathing when she was sucking his blood either. She might be passed out, but she couldn't have been dead, could she?

His attention diverted back to his Emboar, who was standing in front of him just as the woman was before him. Instead of the woman's blank void stare, however, Black was met with Destroyer's compassionate eyes that while most people would find him fearful, he found a lot of comfort in him.

Destroyer took a couple of steps forward until he was within reaching distance of Black, and noticed that there was blood coming from the area of his neck he clenched with his hand. "You ok?" he asked in his regular fierce voice.

Black could only nod a little bit, he was starting to feel rather light-headed. "Yeah... I think... Destroyer... please... help me up." he said softly. He was starting to feel a bit sick. Something wasn't right.

Destroyer, with a nod, took Black's hand, which was starting to lose its color, and gently as he could, pulled his trainer to his feet, where he stood in a rather fragile manner. "Th...thank you." Black said as he was struggling to keep his balance. Through all this, they had almost forgotten about the storm until a loud crash of thunder was heard. It probably wasn't safe for either of them.

Just then, all the other 5 showed up with Destroyer. Ghosta, Birdy, Angel of Darkness, Slash, Destroyer and Genesect were all there, looking at Black as his will and his body were having an all out war about him staying on his feet. "You're starting to tremble." Slash observed. "Are you unharmed?"

"Yeah... I... I'll be fine..." He forced the words out of his mouth like he was trying to push a big glob of syrup in a 2 centimeter hole. It came out slow and soft.

Just then, the other 5 noticed the work of art Destroyer had made out of the woman. "Dear me! You can't even go 1 mission without getting someone killed, can you?" Ghosta exclaimed, obviously disgusted with the sight.

"Well, in my defense, she was attacking Black. It was either I take action, or he died." Destroyer replied, trying to justify his murder.

"That's ok buddy... she's not dead anyway..." Black said, his breathing slowly becoming all the more difficult.

At this, all the Pokemon looked at him like he was crazy. "What do you mean she's not dead?" Angel of Darkness asked. "She has a hole right in her stomach, she lost her intestines too."

"I'm afraid I'm just as lost as the others, man." Genesect stated. "According to my indicators, this woman doesn't have any pulse at all. Her heart isn't beating, and she isn't even breathing. Are you sure she's alive?"

Black only nodded his head slowly after a few painful breaths. "L...lo...look... at her belly..."

The 6 Pokemon obeyed and simultaneously turned their heads. They were just in time to see the woman's body miraculously regrow her intestines right where it lost the old ones. Her skin even reconstructed by itself. "Well, I'll be damned!" Destroyer exclaimed.

"I've gotta study this body! This is amazing!" Genesect exclaimed. All 6 Pokemon were standing by the body, marveling over what they had just seen.

Black tried to take a step forward in an attempt to get to them. With the rain coming as it was, it would be a good time to go back. Unfortunately, after he took that step, that's where his entire body gave out on him. His vision went entirely blurry, and he could barely breathe as he fell to his knees, gasping for air.

Just before his vision went completely black, he was able to make out through the blur Birdy looking back at his trainer. "Good Lord served with green beans! Look at him!" Birdy shouted. That's the last thing Black heard before he fell face into the ground, passed out just like the woman before him.

XXX

"Black? Black! Wake up Black! Please, wake up!" Slash said as he continued to shake Black's body, trying to get some response.

"He's losing way too much blood!" Genesect shouted. The wind had picked up to great velocity, making it roar very loudly, making it almost impossible for the Pokemon to hear one another. "Slash, your species can shoot web out of your mouth! Use it to form a cyst around the bite mark! We can't afford to have our trainer lose another drop of blood!" Slash gave a nod of his head, and from his mouth, he shout out some kind of web-like material out of his mouth and covered Black's wound. It seemed to have stopped the bleeding rather well, and the only sign of it now was the small red tint in the center of the web.

Destroyer got Black in his arms, and put him on Birdy's back. "Go on ahead of us, and get Black to the base! We'll meet you there!" he shouted.

Birdy gave a nod, walked backwards a bit, and jumped into the air and flapped his wings, flying against the wind and storm. The power of the wind seemed to be slowing him down a bit, so he was forced to use a continuous Sky Attack to keep enough velocity to get Black to the base. "Black, please hold on. We're here for you."

Q: So, I'm not 100% sure, but I bet there are a lot of people who are wondering who's side I am on. Am I pro-human or pro-shiki, and my answer... none of them. The shiki should never have come back to life in the first place, they should have stayed dead, and they just thought they could do whatever they wanted in Sotaba and not pay for it, so that gives me reason to be against the shiki. However, the humans ended up being no better than the shiki. They had no problem killing other humans who they only suspected to be working with the shiki, and had no remorse whatsoever (especially that Ookawa guy, he had no soul whatsoever), so that gives me reason to be against the humans. Overall, I think both sides were completely wrong, and I was actually happy to see Sotaba burn. Both of the sides wanted it for their own, and in the end, it's destroyed. Now, with that being said, are you pro-shiki, pro-human, or with me?


	2. Second Chance

Unstable Alliance

February 22, 2014

Neither of Black's Pokemon really knew what to do while he was lying in his bed, unconscious, with no guarantee that he'll be waking up again. All they could do is hide in their secret base, the scariest game of wait and see they've ever played.

All of them seemed to have been doing there own thing to try to help Black.

Genesect was in the small lab, studying the woman they had found back in Sotaba. They were rather reluctant when it said it was going to do so, and they knew Black would be as well, but it promised that the Cryofreeze chamber in there would allow it to study the body without her waking up and trying to attack it. They were still a bit reluctant of the idea, but they supposed that a robot built for battle would be able to defend itself just fine against her. Besides, since they were both in the lab for a couple of days without there being any sounds of explosions or anything, they just assumed that Genesect's promise was true.

Destroyer, itching for a fight and willing to protect Black from anything, has volunteered to stay guard. When he's not sleeping, eating, or doing anything that one of the other 5 need help on, he's pacing back and forth outside, daring anything to come into his sight. There are sometimes where something comes along that didn't mean any harm to Black, but Destroyer attacked them anyway, making sure that he was extra careful. Though he's usually not using his head, he had the common sense to know that if a dead corpse could suddenly turn and attack Black with no warning, anything could turn up to kill him.

Slash mostly acted as a diverter, whenever somebody wanted to know what Black was doing, or where he was, Slash was able to bullshit them out of that situation anyway possible. Slash was not only one of the fast ones in the team, he was also known as the "Pretty Boy" of the group, mainly because he was always hitting on girls, and whenever he told even the most obvious of lies, everyone couldn't help but believe him. It took Black over 3 years to learn how to tell whenever Slash is telling a lie, and even to this day, he gets it wrong sometimes.

Angel of Darkness took on the task as the main carer of the whole team until Black was able to take care of them all again. She didn't think it was going to be too difficult, since she was trying to do exactly what Black did, letting them take care of themselves most of the time, but it turned out to be a little more difficult that anticipated. It was almost as if when she took Black's job, she inherited his motherly instinct. She's constantly been checking on the others, which apparently got on Genesect's nerves to the point where he locked the lab door. They could easily bust it down, but they knew Black would get pissed off.

Birdy was the one who went out most of the time to get the stuff they needed. He'd fly out to wherever they needed to get something, whether it be something like just grabbing something from Black's house quick or somewhere like Nimbasa City or Undella Town, Birdy was the one that made sure it got done. Granted, he could tell that there were a bunch of people that were kind of taken off guard whenever they saw a human sized bird shopping for chicken and turkey at the nearest Kroger. but he really didn't care much. He kind of liked it whenever some kid runs into him and starts talking. It kind of freaks the parents out when he starts responding, though.

Ghosta, however, probably took the biggest job out of all of them, and that was watching over Black constantly, and making sure that he recovers fine and well. It was actually a rather frightening experience for Ghosta, mostly because it seemed that she could never know what to expect from Black, especially now in this state.

There have been times where Black would just lay there, staring at the ceiling with his eyes open, almost as if he was dead or paralyzed. The next moment, he could be thrashing around in his bed, screaming bloody murder and blurting out a bunch of indistinct things she couldn't understand.

It was pretty exhausting, really. She never thought that it would take so much energy out of her just to take care of one 16-year-old human. She supposed that was only giving her more reasons why she would never breed.

She was currently floating a couple of inches off the ground, with her head on a table as she tried to get a quick breather. She really didn't feel that it was right to be sleeping when her trainer's life is in her hands; for all she knew at that moment, Black could be in cardiac arrest. However, she had spent a lot of energy trying to take care of him however she could, and she could barely keep her eyes open. She had been resting for about 30 minutes now, and she was thinking that another half an hour would do her good.

She wasn't really expecting that soft tap on the back of her head. The minute she felt the tapping, her eyes darted open. She may have been a tired Pokemon for the moment, but that, in no way, shape, or form, took any of the alertness of hers. She immediately rose her head up and turned it to the right to see what tapped her.

She gave out a small sigh of relief when she saw that it was only her trainer, Black. "So, you're up then? Eesh, you gave me quite the scare there, buddy." she said in her British accent. Black only continued to stare at her with a rather blank expression.

Now, Ghosta knew Black for over 6 years now, and if there's one thing she had learned about him, it's really not like Black to keep his mouth shut like that. There had been times where Black started talking about a subject, and he wouldn't stop talking to the other person, or whatever he was talking to, for hours, sometimes not even letting the other person talk until he was completely done. To have him just keep silent with that blank expression, it wasn't at all like him. "...Black?... Black, are you ok?... Black?..."

Ghosta was beginning to get a bad feeling about this. She didn't want to hurt her trainer at all, she loved him and would do anything to make sure he was safe, just like all the others, but she would defend herself if Black were to try anything. She backed up a bit, keeping a tense look in Black's emotionless eyes, preparing an Ominous Wind just in case. "Black... what's wrong..." Just that same, emotionless stare...

Finally, Black blinked, and looked at Ghosta with his usual content look. "Oh, sorry, I zoned out there for a minute. Were you saying something?"

Ghosta would have slapped him from Tokyo all the way to California if she didn't care for him so much. "Oh, for God's sake Black! Are you trying to give me a heart attack?!" she screamed angrily. Black only tilted his head a little bit like a confused dog, wondering what she was acting up about. "I tried to talk to you like 3 times already and you didn't do anything! I was starting to worry that something was wrong with you!"

Black's content look in his eyes finally gave a look of regret. "Oh, really? I'm sorry." he said. He really was sorry... for 5 seconds. Then he gave out another content look at her and began to talk again. "I've been doing that zoning out thing for quite some time. I guess it may just be some kind of product from what happened... uh... how many days has it been since I got bitten?"

"You've been recuperating for about 4 days now." Ghosta said. Black gave somewhat of a horrified look at her. He obviously wasn't expecting something like that. "You passed out while we were still in Sotaba, and we had Birdy get you here. I think you're really lucky to be alive."

"I've been asleep for 4 days?! No way!" Black got on the table Ghosta was recently resting on and was laying down on it, giving a horrified and shocked look with his hand on his forehead. The way he was talking, however, Ghosta really couldn't tell whether he was actually terrified that he was asleep for 4 days, or if he was just being a complete smart ass about it. "Oh, my life is passing by in the minutes!" he said in a blubbering voice. It was distinctly obvious now that he was just messing with his Pokemon, which was his strange and twisted way to tell his Pokemon that he was just fine. "All the things I have yet to do in life, and I won't be able to do them, all because I fell asleep for a couple of-"

Black was cut short from his little rant when he began hyperventilating. He grabbed his throat for a few seconds and was taking really loud breaths, trying to regulate his breath rate.

The minute Ghosta saw this happening, she became worried again. "Black! Are you ok?!" Black stuck his hand up in as a sign to tell her to give him a minute. He kept breathing really fast and hard, but his breath was slowly becoming more silent and less frequent.

After about 20 seconds, Black just laid there, though his breathing pattern seemed to have been back to normal, and his breathing was silent. The 2 beings just stayed in place for a little bit, as if daring the other one to say a word. Then Black looked at Ghosta and answered her question. "Yeah, I think I'm ok... I don't think I've fully recovered from that attack yet... if it weren't for all of you guys, I would probably be dead..."

"Black... you shouldn't be up right now... get back into your room. You need to rest."

"No. Thanks for being so concerned, but I'm fine...well, I'm able to walk again, and I'm awake, so that's a start... I do have some troubles with breathing every once in a while, but... I think all I need is a good rest, and I'll be back at it by tomorrow." Ghosta wasn't really sure whether she could trust that, but she thought if he's walking and talking, he'll be alright. "Now, I see one of my team members, but I don't see the other 5. Where are they?"

To the very least, he's still the same Black he was before he was attacked personality wise. He was still one to mess with everyone, and he was still caring for his Pokemon. "Well, ever since you were attacked, we all decided to do something to help out. Birdy, Angel of Darkness and Slash are all in here yet, waiting to see if there's anything else they have to help out with. Destroyer is outside, keeping guard in case someone wanted to attack you. As for Genesect... Genesect's been in the lab all day for the past 2 days. When we left Sotaba, Genesect requested that we take the woman that attacked you so he could do some studying on her body."

Black looked kind of nervous when he got the news of what Genesect was doing. Whether it was because he was reluctant on the idea of Genesect being alone with that thing or simply that he was afraid she would make another attempt on his life Ghosta really wasn't able to tell. All she knew was that Black really didn't like the idea. "...Ok... well get all of them together. Tell them that I'm awake, and I want to meet all of them in Genesect's Lab." he said with a tinge of worry in his voice. "Meanwhile, I'll go over to the lab and make sure that nothing too bad is happening in there."

Ghosta gave a nod, and both of them went to do what Black said.

Black walked to the cold iron doors that housed Genesect's lab. The doors were most likely locked, so he couldn't just bust in. "Then I'll have to do things the polite way..." Black muttered as he raised his fist and knocked on the door. "Genesect, you in there buddy?" he called as he waited by the door. "It's me, Black."

Black could hear the metallic footsteps from inside as Genesect was making his way to the door. After a few seconds, the doors parted way to reveal the robotic bug standing there, looking at Black with his big red eyes. "You're timing on waking up couldn't be any better, Black." it said in its half robotic voice. "I just found quite a few interesting details of the body that you might like to know."

"Excellent. Well, if you don't mind, let's wait to talk about it until the other 5 get in here. It might be better if we have all of us together this time."

"Ugh, do they really have to all be in here at the same time Black?" Genesect never really liked the idea of having the whole team around such delicate equipment. "You do remember what a mess I had to clean up the last time right?"

Black shook his head and gave a hearty chuckle at the memory. "Well this time, I'm 100% positive that Destroyer and Angel of Darkness aren't having another argument about who should get the last piece of fried chicken at supper tonight. You have nothing to worry about."

Genesect merely shook his own head. Black has this dangerous habit of trying to comfort a mad, sad, or worried person while messing with them or being a jackass at the same time. Just then, Destroyer, Slash, Birdy, Ghosta and Angel of Darkness all made their way into the lab, and went up to Black and Genesect.

"Ah, finally, there you all are. You all have some nerve, keeping me waiting while someone in our group has very important information to share." Black said kind of seriously, which made his Pokemon all kind of look down. "Eesh, I'm only kidding. God, stop taking me so seriously." he said in his real serious voice.

"Well, even though you almost died that night Black, I'm glad to see that you still haven't changed one bit." Birdy said with a shake of his head.

"Hehehe. Yeah, I think we should all be happy on that. Now, anyway, what were you able to find Genesect?"

Genesect led them all to the Cryofreeze Chamber, which looked like a white escape pod with steam coming out of it. In there was the woman's body, which looked completely void of all life. They couldn't see the whole body, but from the small window in the front, they could see her face. Black took a few seconds to admire the woman's beauty. She actually looked really nice when she was just laying there, sleeping. "I've been studying her for 4 days now, and I can definitely say that this is one organism I don't think I could have ever dreamed of."

Black and all his Pokemon all sat down to see what all Genesect had to say. "The first thing I realized is that it doesn't even seem she's alive. She doesn't seem to have a heartbeat or a pulse. Moreover than that, she isn't even breathing, and her skin is cold as ice."

"Well if that's the case, then she must be dead, right?" Slash asked,not knowing at all where Genesect was getting at.

"Yes, that's what I thought when I began my studies, but that night, I left my recorder on by mistake, and this is what I found." Genesect proceeded to go over to his Alienware, type a few things down. Black could never really understand why Genesect would ever need any computer of sort since he was literally all the computer brands in the world in one robot, but he got him the Alienware anyway. Genesect got a sound file on the screen, and then pressed the play button.

It was quiet for the first seconds, making the other 5 Pokemon and Black think that Genesect was playing a prank on him, but that changed when it got to the 0:53 mark. That's when they began to hear the voice of a woman speak. "...Mikiyasu... Susumu... I... I didn't mean to... mother, father, I'm sorry... Please don't... Miyuki... where... help me..."

This didn't seem to mean much to the other 5, but Black actually became very intrigued as to what he heard. He knew it was just a woman talking in her sleep at night, but what she did kind of frightened him a bit. It made him think of his own family and friends, and how much he was constantly ignoring them. "...I see... please, continue."

Genesect nodded and went on. "I tried to see if there was any way I could harm the body. I tried severing limbs, cutting blood veins, but whatever physical damage I applied seemed to have healed within a matter of seconds. I then tried injecting various chemicals in her body. Hydrochloric acid, molten lead, potassium cyanide, no matter what I used to destroy her body from the inside, her body was able to eliminate it the second it was injected."

Black was caught dumbfounded by the whole thing. How can woman be able to endure so many things that Genesect was trying on her? "Though, there was something that her body did that had me more surprised than all of this. If you could, Ghosta, please open the curtain up a bit." A window in a lab didn't feel too right to Black, but then again, he never used this place, so what did he know? Ghosta opened the curtain, and let the sunlight in, which shined in, landing flawlessly on the window, shining the light on the woman's face.

What happened got all of their attention, even the Pokemon that weren't listening to a single thing Genesect said or were just counting the seconds until he stopped. The second the sunlight came into contact with the woman's face, it immediately began to burn. The skin was literally burning and peeling off.

Black only stood there and stared. He was not only fascinated by what was going on, he was also terrified. "No... make it stop! Ghosta! Close the curtain!" he shouted after a few seconds.

"Close it? But Black, why would we-"

"NOW!" Black shouted, obviously not in the best mood of his life. Ghosta, shocked by how Black snapped at her like that, immediately closed the curtain, and the sunlight stopped coming in. The woman's skin stopped burning, and it only took a couple of seconds for it to heal.

"It would appear as if her body has some kind of alergic reaction to the UV radiation of the sun." Genesect said.

"Yes... but the only question is... why?... Genesect, open up a search engine."

That's when Genesect spoke in his fully mechanical voice. "SEARCH ENGINE ACTIVATED. PLEASE SAY A COMMAND."

"Search: Beings that have no heartbeat and pulse." Black said.

"SEARCHING... SEARCHING... 1,243,173 RESULTS FOUND."

"Well, that's no help... narrow search. Immune to poison and physical inflections."

"NARROWING RESULTS... 23,814 RESULTS FOUND."

"Hm... narrow search. Cannot be in sunlight."

"NARROWING RESULTS... 2 RESULTS FOUND."

"Perfect. Give me the first result." he said as he sat back down.

"LOADING... LOADING... LOAD COMPLETE. VAMPIRES ARE BEINGS THAT WERE ALWAYS FAMOUS IN GHOST STORIES AND HORROR MOVIES."

"Vampires? Do such things even exist?" Angel of Darkness said, her voice soothing like a ringing bell.

"THE FIRST EVER STORY OF A VAMPIRE, DRACULA, WAS INSPIRED BY A MAN NAMED VLAD DRACULA, A.K.A: VLAD THE IMPALER. VARIOUS STORIES TELL OF DIFFERENT APPEARENCES AND ROLES OF THE VAMPIRES."

"So we're not sure... now that I think of it, there have been a lot of rumors for something like this in Sotaba... my dad told me about the stories, but he said that he didn't believe one bit in the..." Black's eyes widened, as he remembered something important. "Genesect! Go back to the search engine!"

"CLOSING CURRENT TAB... CLOSING CURRENT TAB... CLOSING CURRENT TAB..." Black rolled his eyes and shook his head. Had he known that Genesect would perform certain tasks slowly, he would have nicknamed him Windows 98. "PLEASE SAY A COMMAND."

"Search: Shiki."

"SEARCHING... SEARCHING... 450,623 RESULTS FOUND."

Black was about ready to smack his head with his palm right about now. Then he had an idea. "Search: Shiki vampires."

The others didn't seem to know what Black was trying to go for, but they knew that it would be better if they just let Black do what he willed. "SEARCHING... 1 RESULT FOUND."

Black couldn't believe it. He was literally about to discover whether what he had heard was truth or folklore. "Give it to me."

"LOADING... LOAD COMPLETE. SHIKI VAMPIRES ARE A SUPPOSED BEING THAT WERE HUMANS AT FIRST. FROM WHAT IT WAS CLAIMED, THE SHIKI VAMPIRES CAME BACK TO LIFE AFTER DYING, CONTAINING ALL THEIR MEMORIES OF LIFE WHEN THEY AWAKEN. THE SHIKI VAMPIRES WERE FIRST BROUGHT UP BY A MAN NAMED HAGESAWA, WHO CLAIMED THAT THE SHIKI WERE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DESTRUCTION OF A VILLAGE NAMED SOTABA, BUT NOBODY WHO WAS IN SOTABA BEFORE IT WAS DESTROYED EVER CONFIRMED THAT RUMOR, THEREFORE MAKING IT JUST A HOAX."

Black opened his eyes wide, and stared at the woman's face. "I... I don't... believe it... you always told me that the rumors were nothing but myth... you told me that Sotaba burned because of some person's accident, but now i know... the rumors are true! The shiki do exist!" he said as he remembered all that his father told him. "I've done it... I've discovered the real reason Sotaba was supposed to be gone forever..."

His Pokemon could tell he was happy. He had fulfilled a dream of his and fulfilled his promise to his father. He then walked up to all of them, and he hugged all of them at once. "Thank you... all of you. If it weren't for all of you, I would never have the opportunity to see this through." Black and all his Pokemon had a big group hug for about a couple of minutes. His Pokemon also did something important through all of this. Through the events that transpired, Black was considering taking his own life since he thought there was nothing else he could accomplish, and they helped him get over that.

"Genesect, how long will it be until the woman awakens from the Cryofreeze?" Black asked as soon as they all let go.

Genesect talked in his half robotic voice again. "I can deactivate the Cryofreeze now, but in order for her to be fully awake from it, I'd give her... no less than a day."

"Good. Awaken her from the Cryofreeze then. I'd like to discuss a few things with her."

"Black, you can't be serious! Don't you remember what she did to you?" Destroyer questioned.

"If she tried to kill you once, she's obviously gonna try it again!" Birdy exclaimed.

"You're not seriously going to take that risk again, are you?" Angel of Darkness said.

"Of course I am. Because unlike the first time, I've got my team to back me up in case something goes wrong." he said in the utmost confidence. "Please awaken her. I'll talk to her when she's awake." With those words, Black walked out of the lab, leaving only the concerned faces of his Pokemon.

February 24, 2014

The woman gave a terrified expression when she was awoken. The familiar voices of people screaming, the potent scent of burning souls, and the searing feel of the fires reminded her all too well of where she was.

"...No... no! No! Not back here! Not down here! Let me go!" she shouted as the fires were starting their assaults on her flesh.

Just when she was already cursing her return to that wretched place, the voice of her family came again.

"You thought you could escape?!"

"You're still the same ignorant selfish bitch you were when you died!"

"You'll never escape your just deserts!"

"Please! Please stop it! I'm sorry! I didn't mean it!" she cried out as she got on her knees and folded her hands, as if praying. "Please, just make the pain stop!"

"You killed us, we could never forgive you!"

"Keep your mouth shut while you continue to rot!"

"Christ won't save you!"

"The saints never knew you!"

"God hates you!"

"...Nao..."

The sweet and gentle voice seemed to have overcome the hate filled voices, and the woman immediately saw her sister right there in front of her. The fires seemed to have parted way for her; they were not to touch her, for she had been saved.

"Miyuki! Miyuki! I'm so sorry! Please forgive me! I'm so sorry!" the woman screamed as the fire continued to torment her.

"Nao... listen to me."

"I can't be down here again! I've learned my lesson, I swear I won't do it again! Just please sister! Help me!"

"Shut up and listen to me!" the woman known as Miyuki shouted, getting the other's attention to her. "...Sister, you and the others like you have been given a rare opportunity! Never in the history of the universe has anyone else gotten the chance to escape this place! You've been given a once in eternity chance to flee from this horrible place forever! Don't blow it!"

"But sister, I... I can't... what am I supposed to do?! I don't know how I'm supposed to-"

"You are the first to be given this choice! Only you decide if you get out of here!" Just then, Miyuki began to float back up from the Inferno, away from the tortured souls. "You can escape here! Take your chance!"

"No! Sister! Please don't leave me! Miyuki, please come back!" the woman called up to her, but it was too late. Miyuki already floated away from her sight, back to Paradise. "Miyuki! Come back! Please don't leave me! Please!" The woman closed her eyes as the searing pain and regret was becoming too much. She didn't want to...

When she opened her eyes, she was shocked at what she saw. Where she was now was completely different than what she just saw.

Instead of the billions of screams she heard, she was now hearing complete silence, save the birds chirping from outside.

Replacing the infinitely hot fires, she was now laying on a soft and comfortable bed, with a warm blanket over her and a fluffy pillow under her head.

Her usual clothes had been taken off, and she was laying there, wearing nothing but her undergarments. For a minute, she thought that her sister had come back and pulled her to Paradise.

"Are you sure that you'll be able to handle this yourself? She can be quite dangerous you know." spoke a half mechanical voice that she didn't seem to recognize. Was she really in Heaven?

"Of course. I'll be able to handle this no sweat." said a voice that would match a perfect Spanish stereotype. "You just go wherever Black needs you, and I'll handle this little thing."

"...Very well. Just know that Birdy and Destroyer are right outside if you need anything." With that, a series of metal clangs rang through her head, slowly fading away as she could tell whatever was talking was walking away.

She was still trying to make sense of what was just said, when on the other side of the bed, a yellow, leafy mantis thing, about 6'4", jumped on the other side of the bed, and gave a model pose. "Well, aren't you quite the beauty?" he said in the same Spanish accent she heard just seconds ago.

The next thing she knew, he got his face really close to hers, and looked at her as if he was trying to hypnotize her. He had the slyest smirk on his face. "Name's Slash the Leavenny, Bug and Grass Pokemon expert. How are you?"

Was this thing hitting on her? It was pretty obvious, and it was actually annoying her a bit. "Ooh, a quiet one, eh? Well, don't worry. Ol' Pretty Boy here's got quite an arsenal of ways to make you talk... Well, no soul, eh? You can at least say hello. Give me a kiss. Tell me that I'm sexy beyond all compare. Just do something."

She could have just completely ignored him, but she felt the hunger creep across her body again. How long had it been since she had any blood to drink? "_I... I have to drink some... or else I'll starve, and go right back to... to..._" she didn't want to think about going back to Hell, but she knew that it was either she go back there, or she drank someone's blood. She looked over at Slash, who was still just laying there like he didn't care. "_He's... he's not human, but... he's going to have to do for now..._" Without a word being uttered, she raised up with unnatural speed, and went to bite at the creature's neck.

It was almost as if he was nothing but an illusion. When she was springing up to attack him, he was there in plain sight, but when she was inches away from sinking her fangs into his neck, he was to the right of her. She would have gasped in shock had she been able to breathe still. The creature gave a whistle before speaking to her again, "Well, I gotta admit girl, you are a bit faster than those I usually fight. You almost had me."

She turned to face him, and attempted to slash his face with her razor claws. The creature was somehow able to jump up, despite laying down, and landed right behind the woman, and rested his head on her shoulder. "Emphasis on **almost**." he whispered in a sly matter.

This thing was really starting to step on her last nerves. She tried again to bite his neck, but he jumped away from the bed, did an impressive number of back flips, and landed right in front of the bed. Just really mess with her, he began doing that dance from the caramelldansen meme. "You can't get me. You can't get me." he sang in a mocking matter as he did his dance.

She got out of the bed, and made an attempt to charge at him. He leisurely stepped to the side just before she reached him, and she came into contact with the door with a large thud. "Well congratulations. You have officially tried to give yourself a bad headache." She was getting sick of him running his mouth like that, and was ready to kill him.

Just then, the doorknob turned, getting the woman's attention as it slammed open. The next thing she knew, a huge, orange and black pig standing on 2 feet walked in and slammed its fist right into her stomach. The force was so great that it actually sent her flying back into the bed she awoke from. Before she could get back up, the pig slammed its hand on her chest, this time keeping its hand on her, pushing her into the bed.

The woman was feeling her ribs crack slightly from the force. Though it wasn't enough to kill her, it definitely felt very uncomfortable to say the least. She put her hands on the side of the pig's hands, and began to push with all her might in a desperate attempt to lift his hand away, but she wasn't strong enough. It was either that she had weakened from her hunger of blood, or the creature was applying a lot more force than she could ever dream to muster.

To add insult to injury, after a good 10 seconds of struggling, the thing growled in a very intimidating matter, and pushed down harder. It no longer mattered if she was laying on a very soft bed; she could be laying on 10 Temperpedics stacked on top of each other, and she'd still feel the nasty sting of what this abomination was doing to her.

The thing that had been annoying her moments before was now leaning against the wall near the window curtain with his blade-like arms crossed. "Do you always have to come in and try to spoil my fun, you brute?" he questioned in a very bored matter.

The pig looked over at him, but still kept his hand firmly pushing on her. Better yet, to say he was just pushing her down would be a terrible understatement. It felt like if he would apply a little more force, he could break all of her ribs and crush her heart without any effort. "You may have patience when it comes to these little games, but I don't. We have some important business to attend to, so I suggest that unless you want to make firewood out of you, you'll keep your focus, kapeesh?"

"Well, well. Temper, temper, temper. I think you should just be lucky that you're threat isn't obsolete. If you didn't have those damned Fire Type moves to burn me, I wouldn't listen to a single thing you say."

The woman was now beginning to scream in anger as she continued to try to lift his hand off of her. That's when the mantis had a terribly cruel idea of how to get her to behave. He walked over to the curtain, and gave a whistle to get the woman's attention. "Hey, pretty lady, come look over here." He pulled the curtain ever so slightly to let a few rays of sunlight in, which touched the center of her bra flawlessly, barely missing her skin.

The minute she saw the sunlight on her chest, she froze up immediately. She stared at it with a great amount of fear. She looked up now, and the fear accumulated when she saw the pig, looking at her with an evil grin. "You know, we did some studies on you while you were taking your little nap, and we found that this sunlight doesn't do your skin no good. But, I only saw what it did when you were asleep." He then grabbed her left arm with his own free one while he still held her down, and was inching her hand in the direction of the sunlight. "I wonder how much it will hurt if you're awake."

All at once, the woman began to break down as she remembered why she was here, what she had just gotten out of. All the memories came back of how she was laying on that feild, how much that sunlight burned and tormented her. "Stop! Please no!" she cried as she grabbed her left arm with her right hand, and began to pull and tug at it in a futile attempt to free it. The pig gave an annoyed growl and just continued to slowly move it without any effort, relishing the torture for as long as he could. Though there didn't seem to be much point, she continued to tearfully plead and beg with the creature. "Please don't do this! Please spare me! Please!"

"Be quiet!" the pig said in a threatening manner. It was then that he stopped moving her hand, and she got into her face and began to tell her how things were going to work out. "Now listen here... shiki... the only reason you're here right now is because my trainer thought that you would be a lot more use to him alive." She was beginning to wonder how he knew she was a shiki, and what this trainer could want with her. She didn't have time to think long, because the pig got closer to her face, and she could smell the burning sulfur in his breath. It reminded her too much of the brimstone and the lake of fire she was lucky enough to be out of. "I hope for your sake that you don't prove him wrong."

"I'm sorry! Please forgive me! I-I-I-I won't d-d-do it again! I swear!" she stuttered fearfully as she continued to look into the things eyes. Thankfully, he gave a nod of "that's more like it" and got out of her face.

Before she could ask the 2 anything, the door opened again, and in walked a tall bird with a beautiful array of colors and a pink headress-like thing on his head. She didn't know what it was with these creatures being so tall, but she paid no mind to it. SHe only paid attention to what he said. "...Ok shiki, I hope you had quite the beauty sleep. Our trainer is ready to see you now."

Q: I remember that I once had a dream where I walked into my dad's office, and I saw a little Pikachu standing there. I woke up, kind of thinking it would be cool if Pokemon were real. I wouldn't even have to ride the bus to school, I could just pick a ride up with my Rayquaza. If I was in a real hurry, just get Abra to teleport me anywhere. Got a vampire problem (ok, let's be honest, what are the chances of that happening, but for the sake of a Pokemon Shiki crossover, humor me)? Just get Groudon out, and commit mass blood sucker genocide. Now, granted, if half of the Pokedex entries are right, real Pokemon would also produce a number of problems. Can you imagine just minding your own business and suddenly have an Electrode within 20 feet of you suddenly explode for no reason? So, do I wish that Pokemon were real? Well... only if we can control them. On that note, what about you? Ever wish you could just have your own little Pokemon of your own?


	3. A New Alliance

Unstable Alliance

February 24, 2014

What could she say about what was happening to her now? She really didn't know.

She couldn't really make any comments on what was going on to her right at that moment. All she knew was that she had finally been freed from that wretched chasm, and couldn't go 5 minutes without something getting ready to kill her. After trying to kill one of them and the other trying to kill her, she was being led by 3 creatures she had never seen before, as if they knew her for some time.

She didn't bother to make a single sound while they were by her, except for the sounds of her footsteps. Her instincts told her to try to find out as much as possible, like how she ended up here, and who these creatures were working for, but she was too afraid to make a peep. She just kept her mouth completely shut as they continued through the gray and black hallway.

Whoever this trainer of theirs was, he was surely one rich man. Everywhere she looked, it seemed he had shelves upon shelves, piled with seemingly invaluable items. Gemstones, pearls, gold nuggets, bronze silver and gold coins, and even a few really old looking items. Shelves upon shelves stacked and stuffed with tons of precious items, like he was obsessing over everything that could make a quick buck.

The pig, whom she had picked on as Destroyer, seemed to have noticed how she seemed so intrigued by the items. "To our trainer, riches mean not only the amount of money you have, but also rare items that are worth more than a person's head." he said. The part where he mentioned items being worth more than a person's head was kind of peculiar to her. Does that mean that should anyone even steal the least valuable of those items, this trainer of theirs would go so far as to behead them just to retrieve what belongs to him?

"Now now Destroyer, I don't think you need to brag to this girl about our marvelous collection." the human-sized bird said in a German accent. "Besides, she probably has a lot on her mind right now. You should let her be."

The woman closed her eyes as those words she uttered before her death played in her head, "_Please, let me go! Let me go!_" That's when she wondered again just how these creatures knew what she was, and what they were. Since they began a conversation, she decided it would be somewhat safe to try to dig up some information. "How... how do you know I'm a shiki?" she asked, hesitantly.

The mantis that had been hitting on her moments ago, who refered to himself as Slash, didn't even look at her when he responded. "Well, while Genesect was doing some tests on you, our trainer found out you were some kind of vampire. We didn't really know what to say until Black was able to put 2 and 2 together. He remembered that it was claimed you were the cause for the destruction of Sotaba."

The final words somewhat puzzled Nao. "Destruction of... Sotaba?..." Maybe he had just used the wrong wording. The shiki never destroyed Sotaba, they were fighting to try to make it their home. Then, somehow, she remembered what had happened a few nights earlier. She remembered how she had awoken to someone talking to her, how when she woke up, she saw nothing but ashes and charcoal black trees. It couldn't be... could it? She then looked at Birdy, who was in front of her, carrying on, until she asked. "Sotaba's destroyed?... How... how long have I been dead?"

She couldn't help but feel the facial expression of the bird change. Whether it was because he was concerned, gloating, or just something else, she really couldn't tell. "...Sotaba was destroyed on the year 1993... you were taking your dirt nap for over 20 years."

Had Nao still had the capacity to breathe, she would have let out a shocked gasp right there. "W-w-what?! 20 years?!" she exclaimed. The bird only gave a slight nod that was almost impossible for anyone to notice, but she did. How could that be? She was really down there, burning for her sins for 20 years?

She wish she wouldn't have started thinking about that, as a million memories began flooding back. She remembered the frigid temperatures when she was first making her way to receive her Judgment. She remembered how frightened she was, and how that meant nothing after she had finally gotten what she deserved. The unbearable pain of the fires also seemed to have creeped up on her skin as she remembered the unbearable heat of the Inferno. It was such a punishment that was so terrible, she wouldn't wish it on the worst of her enemies; not Hagesawa, her killer, not Sadafumi, her torturer, not even her mother and father, who had done nothing but show her hate and neglect when she was a child.

It was almost as if Hell itself was shrunken and stuffed inside her brain. She could remember every single little detail of what happened down there. She remembered it all, from the voices of her family cursing her, to the inextinguishable pool of flames, and even seeing her loved ones staring at her in sadness from Paradise, and her reaching up for them, begging them to pull her out of such a terrible place.

Then, as she was telling herself that she wouldn't even wish that her mother and father would burn there for all eternity, she did remember that they were down there just as well. She could almost see it there and now, how they were burning in those fires. Just as they had wasted their lives in alcohol, they were forced to suffer a fall of burning magma falling into their mouths and down their throats. Like how they used to cheat their way into gambles, the demons down their ripped off their skin and gambled to see sho would keep it; whenever a piece of their skin was ripped off, it regenerated in an instant so the pain could never cease.

She wanted so much to go over to them, and interact with them, but she couldn't. Even when they were suffering such a punishment, they still had the same hatred they did when they were alive, and were blaming the other for being down there. She knew that if she were to go over to them, they would also try to put any blame on her, and she was already tormented enough by the voices of her family.

That's when she began to remember some of the other shiki like her that she had seen down there. The first one she remembered being down there was Chiziru Kirishiki, who could be seen somewhat as one of their leaders, falling behind their mastermind, Sunako. Down there, she was suffering the price for inflautuating so many young men and killing them. In the Gehenna, her naked body was sealed down by the limbs by 4 white-hot chains of iron as the flames thrusted there way into her vagina. They would come out of her mouth as she screamed in complete agony. Such a torture nobody could deserve, no matter what terrible crimes they have committed. The words she had uttered were quite memorable, "Had I known this would happen, I would have died much sooner!"

The next one she remembered being down there was Megumi Shimizu, one of the last of her kind to be killed during the war. In all truth, her different wasn't really at all different from her own. She was constantly cursed at by all the people she had hurt just like her, except in Megumi's case, the people torturing her really were in Hell with her. She was constantly begging for the pain to stop and pleading for mercy. There was even a moment where Megumi looked at her and begged for forgiveness for whatever she did, and those words would never leave her head, "Nao! Whatever I did to hurt you, I'm truly sorry! Please forgive me!"

Then, she remembered the boy named Masao Murasako, a shiki that Megumi seemed to hate above all, burning there. From what she could remember, Masao was a rather whiney kid that seemed to take some kind of pleasure in making people unhappy whenever he was too. From what she remembered, his punishment accompanied by the burning flames was that whenever he should attempt to flee from this fate, there would be a white-hot spear that would yank him back down there. Throughout all this, he did absolutely nothing but curse his step-sister, "Damn you Chizuko! It's all your fault that I'm down here!"

Though, it wasn't just Shiki that she had seen down there, and could even make out some of the humans she knew down there. One of them being Tomio Ookawa, the leader of the entire Shiki genocide second only to Toshio Ozaki. He had murdered the shiki without any remorse whatsoever, and so his punishment was just as he had done to all of them. As he burned down there, a huge demon, at least 8'6", held him down with its foot as it continued to hammer white-hot stakes of metal through his chest. These stakes had spirals in them like a screw to increase the pain, and whenever a stake had been put fully through, the demon ripped the stake out of Tomio's chest, and let it heal before starting again. "Why am I down here?! All I wanted was to protect my village!" were the words he uttered everyday.

She had even seen the boy, Natsuno Yuuki there, but his final fate was completely different from all the others. From what she could remember, Natsuno was supposed to burn just like all the rest of them, but the cloaked man who called himself Lucifer, whom all the others down there referred to as Satan, had seemed to have taken a liking to Natsuno's undying hatred for the shiki. It was because of this that he had brought Natsuno in as a torturer, who was assigned the task of tormenting the shiki anyway he saw fit. Unfortunately for all of them, Natsuno took this job very seriously, and seemed to have taken a sick pleasure into doing it. He especially relished when he got to Megumi and Masao, who he had hated in both their human life and their shiki life.

Though there was one shiki that Natsuno did not like being down there, and even got Lucifer to end said shiki's torture and let him become a torturer of shiki as well. This shiki that Natsuno had spared from the Inferno was his best friend, Tohru, and despite not at all enjoying causing the shiki to suffer, he had taken his role just as seriously as Natsuno. Whether it was out of hatred for what they did to him, or whether it was simply out of fear of what would happen if he decided to not do it, he accompanied his best friend as the 2 made Hell all the worse for them.

Thinking of the shiki being tormented made her think of something that she never noticed until now. Was Sunako down there too, and what of that monk she had taken a liking to, Seishin? She couldn't recall ever seeing them down there, but then again, there were quite a number of people that she could only guess were down there as well, and she just couldn't see them.

Then she took some time to take in her surroundings. This was definitely a place she was unfamiliar with, and she couldn't think of any other place she could be. "Where... where am I? Who are you? Why am I here?" she questioned as she was getting nervous from the thought of all of this.

"Hehehe... too many questions... I think the best thing for you to do is to wait for questions until you meet the bigshot himself, and let him explain everything." Destroyer said, letting black smoke bellow from his mouth, as if he was preparing to blast fire out of it. This only made the woman even more nervous to the point where she was shaking in fear. "Have no worries, he's much nicer than I am." Not very comforting, considering the circumstances.

It was then that they came to a door made of metal, which seemed to be slightly ajar, just enough for them to see a small crack of light. They opened the door, the woman hoping to just get this over with.

The creatures she saw couldn't have been the trainer the 3 were talking about, could they? One was a pink octopus-like creature, another was some kind of dragon of some sorts, and the other was a robot in the shape of a bug. "I don't really know about that. Pizza just really doesn't sound like the perfect meal tonight." the octopus said in a British voice. She sounded like a younger form of Queen Elizabeth.

The robotic bug then browsed through a few catalogs and spoke in the same half mechanical voice she had heard back in her room, "Well, we could always go to one of those restaurant, but I'm not 100% sure if they'll have something other than Japanese food. From what our trainer says, it would be nice to get out of the whole traditional thing every once in a while."

Then the dragon spoke, her voice very soothing and calming like the hymn of a lullaby, "Well, if that were the case, they just opened up a new Hunan King around Japan. How about we order some Chinese food tonight?"

The bug nodded and began to talk as if he was fantasizing over something. "Ah, yes. Stir-fry, orange chicken, nice, crispy egg rolls..." It trailed off when it saw the other 2 creatures glaring towards his direction. It turned around and looked at the woman, just as the other 2 were. It was obvious that they would have killed her if they could, all 6 of them. "Ghosta, where might Black be?" the big bird asked. She could only assume that this Black it was speaking of was their trainer.

"From what he said, since he's finally back to his full strength, he was going out to get some firewood." the octopus, apparently named Ghosta, replied. "He took Dragon G with him, so if anything should go wrong, he's got some raw power to back him up."

The next thing she knew, her attention was diverted when she heard a sliding door open. "Speak of the devil." Destroyer muttered as they all looked over to the sliding door. Entering the room was a tall man with a bag full of wood in his left hand. He was wearing a pair of black boots and black pants, along with a black leather jacket over whatever colored shirt he was wearing. He was also wearing a black cowboy hat and a pair of black gloves.

When he turned around, the woman was shocked to see that he recognised him. In fact, she remembered attacking him not too long ago. He may have been wearing a completely different outfit then what she remembered, but she could never forget that fire he had in his eyes, ready for anything. The man stared at her for a little bit before looking at the bird. "Birdy, I understand that we really don't know what she would have worn... but seriously, couldn't you have at least given her a pair of clothes?" When the woman heard this, she looked down and began to blush in embarrassment when she realized that she was still in nothing but her undergarments.

The bird, whom was called Birdy, gave a shrug, causing the man to shake his head. He began walking towards a stone fireplace in the room, while whistling "I've Been Working on The Railroad" in a rather slow tempo. She was ready to say that she was sorry for attacking him, but before she could, she heard another, much heavier set of footsteps walk in. When she looked back at the sliding door, walking in was some kind of behemoth of some sort. It was 9'10" in height and at least 15 feet in length, and was mostly grey all around, with the exception of its head and 2 small wings, which looked exactly like ice. It walked on 2 legs and had another set of legs at the front that were so small they didn't even touch the ground. The most intimidating factor, on the other hand, was the things eyes, which were literally pure yellow, with no pupils or iris to speak of.

The boy almost didn't realize the monster was following him. No, that wasn't the case, that thing was supposed to be following him. She realized that when he looked behind him, looked straight at the beast, nodded his head, and continued walking. He set the wood down near the fireplace, and gave a nod at the beast, who turned around, and walked into whatever room it was going. As it walked past her, she could feel the temperature decrease to quite a degree. It reminded her of her path to Judgment, how cold she was. It didn't go away until the beast went away.

The man sat on a couch that was in the center of the room, which was complemented by an armchair to the right and another couch facing the opposite direction. "Leave us." he said, and all the creatures went out to do whatever they were to do, with the exception of the dragon, who levitated to the arm-chair and sat down.

As they sat down, they quietly sat and stared at the woman. She had no idea how to react to what was going on, so she decided to stay put until she could figure out what to do. "...Well?... Sit down." the man said, extending his arm and making a hand posture as if he was offering her something.

Reluctantly, she sat down on the other couch, the man sitting there calmly and the dragon staring at her with great anticipation. "...I feel that during our misunderstanding, we didn't get the chance to give each other a proper introduction. So, if you don't mind the formalities, my name is Black Stormson, and this is my Hydreigon, Angel of D. What's your name?"

"My... my name... it means nothing..." she replied, remembering that as a shiki, she was not who she was.

"As a matter of fact, it does. After all, doesn't your name mean everything?" he said.

She looked at him, wondering if he really knew what shiki was. It was almost as if he was talking to her like she was still an ordinary human. "...My name... is Nao... Nao Yasumori." she said rather quietly, as if she didn't want him to hear.

"Yasumori?" the dragon questioned. It was obvious that the name Yasumori was foreign to her ears. "I've never heard of such a last name as Yasumori. Are you sure this woman can give us reliable information?" she asked to her trainer, Black, who merely gave a small shrug in response.

"...Are you calling me a liar?" Nao asked as she stood up in anger. "Never in my entire life would I ever tell a lie to any-"

Before she could finish, the dragon opened her mouth and let out a huge, powerful shreeking sound. Nao completely froze up in fear; the noise was unbearably painful, and she could almost see dark smoke bellowing from her mouth. Even Black, who had been with this thing for God knows how long, slightly turned his head to the right. Even he was afraid when his dragon got mad. The dragon began to speak, but her voice had completely changed; instead of the lovely, soothing voice that she had when she was content, her voice had become deep and demonic. "You will sit down, and do what you're told, you ungrateful cur!" The voice wasn't as nearly as frightening as Lucifer's had been, but she had just used an insult that she had heard those voices of her family use against her back in the Inferno. Just like that, all the voices and curses began to play in her head.

"_Worthless bitch!"_

_"Lying sow!"_

_"Disgraceful maggot!"_

_"Faithless whore!_"

"I... I'm sorry!" she screamed as she fell back to the couch, held a pillow over her head, and began to cry. It was almost as if she was back in Hell, and she was begging for forgiveness just like it, practically forgetting that she was out of there. "Please, I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! Make it stop! Make it stop!" She continued to cry and scream, as if she was there again. Black and his Hydreigon only sat there and watched her.

After 5 minutes, she calmed down and looked back at the 2. Black gave his dragon a glare, and she made a sigh before speaking in her soothing voice. "Listen, I'm... I'm sorry, I... I usually don't get mad like that..."

Nao would have stayed mad at what she made her remember, but she also felt that if she wanted to be forgiven for what she did, she must also be willing to forgive others. "...I forgive you..." she whispered silently as she looked to the floor in silence.

"...Well, if it's no problem to you at all, I'm going to write down your name, so that I may be able to remember it. After all, I am quite the forgetful kind of guy." Getting no response, Black took a pen and a piece of paper out as he was saying what he was writing out loud. "Ok... N, o, w, Y-"

"N, a, o, actually."

"What was that?"

"Nothing, just... my name is spelled: N, a, o."

"...So it's pronounced 'Nayo'?"

"No, it's pronounced 'now', but it's spelled N, a, o."

Black stared at the piece of paper for a bit. "...Hm... I see..." he muttered as he scribbled out whatever he was writing and began to repeat the steps again. "Ok, so N, a, o... how do you spell your last name?"

Nao responded slowly so Black could write the whole thing accurately. "Uh... Y... a... s... u... m... o... r... i..."

"O... r, i. Ok, I got it." he said as he happily put the pen and the paper down on the glass table in front of the furniture. "Ok Nao, you don't mind if I ask you a couple of questions, do you?"

"Oh, no. By all means, please do so, but before you do, I, uh... I kind of need to ask you something..." she nervously looked at Angel of D and spoke quietly, choosing her words carefully, "Uh... these... 'creatures' of yours... what are they? Don't take this the wrong way, but they seem to be a little... dangerous to control."

"Well, I guess it's a story worth telling. See, supposedly, at the year 1996, only 3 years after Sotaba's destruction, some of these creatures were discovered on a number of islands. The islands at this moment are named Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Orre, Sinnoh, and Unova, along with the region they're looking at now, called Kalos. These creatures have been called Pokemon, an abbreviation of Pocket Monster. They're really not that difficult to train and raise, provided that you know how to do it."

"Uh... is there any difference between each region?"

"Of course, every single region have certain Pokemon that the others don't. For example, Kanto has Mew and Mewtwo, Johto has Lugia and Ho-oh, Hoenn has Groudon, Kyogre, Deoxys and Rayquaza. Sinnoh has Palkia, Dialga, Giritina and Arceus, and the Unova, my home, has Kyurem, Reshiram, and Zekrom." he stated rather proudly.

Most of the time, everybody that Black would tell this information would try to ignore him, but for some reason, Nao couldn't help but find this information new and exciting. "...You mentioned only 5 of those islands... what about the 6th one?"

"Well, see, the Kalos region is still under quite a lot of investigation, it was only recently discovered about a couple of months ago. They're not 100% sure of what kind of beings live in the Kalos, but they are making a lot of claims that they may have discovered another Pokemon element." He turned to look at Nao in the eyes and could tell she wasn't sure what that meant. "These Pokemon have 17 Types, Normal, Fighting, Water. Grass, Fire, Electric, Psychic, Dragon, Ghost, Ground, Rock, Poison, Fly, Ice, Bug, Steel and Dark. However, the professors that are currently studying the island make claims that they might have discovered an 18th Type. I'm not 100% positive that these are true, but it is a bit interesting to think of, isn't it?"

Nao gave a bit of a nod and had a small, almost impossible to notice smile on her face. For once in her life as a shiki, she had found someone that she could actually call a friend. Moreover than that, it was a human, one that had no desire to kill her just because she was a shiki! She had never thought that this could ever happen! She was so happy that there was a human that could...

Suddenly, she began to feel guilty over her family's death again. If this complete stranger is willing to spare her and even treat her like a friend, then her family could have done the same thing... but she didn't see this... she thought that since they were humans, they wouldn't be able to understand, even if they had loved her once.

That's when she decided to ask Black the question that she had been wanting to ask for a few minutes. "Black... why... why am I alive?... When a shiki is killed after they rise, that's supposed to be it... we're supposed to stay dead forever... why did I come back?"

Black's face hardened (Black's face's Defense rose) and his eyes of friendliness were replaced with seriousness and thoughtfulness. "So... you don't know either, huh?" he asked before leaning back against the couch head. "Great. I was hoping that you would be able to tell me that, but I guess that can't happen... I'm not even sure if you're the only one that came back..." Was he right? Was there actually a chance that, as they were speaking, there could be hundreds of other shiki that are rising again? Or was she the only one that could be pardoned from that wretched Inferno?

"Well, we'll worry about that later, I suppose. For now, if you could, would you tell me a little more about you shiki and what you were doing in Sotaba please?" Black said in a voice that mixed his seriousness and his friendliness.

"Well... sometime during the summer, we had a new family that moved into Sotaba... they were known as the Kirishikis..." Black took a moment to slightly chuckle at the convenience of it. They were named Kirishiki, they were called shikis, the reference couldn't be any more obvious. "It started off as just a small number of us... but eventually the numbers kept increasing, and we were coming closer and closer to claiming Sotaba for ourselves..."

"And so, I'm going to guess that you had decided to take this village by exterminating all the humans, I take it?"

He didn't know whether it was the subject or how he worded it, but after he spoke, he heard sniveling. He looked up to see Nao with her face down and her teeth gritted, as tears were falling down her eyes. "We just wanted to have a home... when a human dies by a shiki, there's never a guarantee that they'll rise... I killed my entire family in hopes that they would come back... I thought we would be a family forever..."

Black actually got up and sat on the other couch, a couple of inches away from Nao, within easy reaching distance. "I killed them all... and none of them rose up..." Nao continued as her voice was now beginning to break up. "...My husband, Mikiyasu... my baby boy, Susumu... my mother and father-in-law, Setsuko and Tokujirou... my brother and sister-in-law... even my poor older sister, Miyuki... none of them deserved to die. They all deserved to live happily, and I denied them that right... I became so saddened and angered by this, I vowed that I would destroy any other family that was happy... and I did... I really did..."

Here she was, telling him of all the things that she had ever done to deserve all the hate in the world, and all Black could do was feel so much pity for this poor wretched creature. With anyone else, surely he would have hated them, wouldn't he? "My family are all in Paradise, all of them..." Nao went on, only being able to speak all these words through sobs and crying. "I've been in Hell for 20 years, begging that my family could forgive me and pull me out of there... but I just never understand... they'll never forgive me, and I don't deserve they're forgiveness... I deserve to rot in Hell like the maggot I am..."

Black could only just watch the woman while she cried. She was beautiful to him, and he couldn't help but find her even more so when she was crying. "...Nao..." Nao looked over at him, still crying as he just silently stared at her. He then began to raise his arms up, in which Nao was bracing herself for a hit or something. Instead, however, he kept his arms extended and open, as if he was going to hug her. "...Come here..."

Nao really didn't care if he was going to try to murder her anymore. She just wanted to be held again. In one swift movement, she leaned forward as she began to sob loudly, and latched on to Black as she wrapped her cold, smooth arms around his shoulders, burying her head in his shirt as she sobbed like a baby. Black only wrapped his arms around her as well as he returned her embrace. "I'm so sorry I killed them! I didn't know they would stay dead forever! I just wanted them to live with me as a happy family forever!"

"Sshh... it's ok Nao... I know that your family has already forgiven you... and I do to..." he whispered quietly in her ear. She only cried harder and pulled him closer to her. He really was the only person Nao could call her friend. He was a human that really didn't care whether she was one of him or not, all he really cared about was that she was alive and safe.

They could have sat there and hold each other forever, but Black began to notice something. Nao's crying had ceased completely, her entire body began to shake, and she seemed to have actually been shivering. "Nao... what's wrong?" he asked as he released her. "Is something the matter?"

"Black... I'm becoming hungry... I... I'm starving..." she said as she laid against the couch again.

"Well, do you need me to get you anything? I can get you like a sandwich, or a-"

"No. I... I need blood, or else I'll die... I... I won't attack you again Black... I won't let my hunger become the death of you..." she whispered hoarsely.

Black took some time to think about that. "...Slash, could you come with me in the kitchen for a minute?" he said as he began to walk into the kitchen.

For however many minutes they were in there, Nao sat there, hugging a pillow to her chest as she kept trying to tell herself not to attack him. "I won't go back there... If I don't kill anyone, maybe I can be forgiven... I won't attack, even if my life depends on it... I won't..."

"Here, Nao, take this." Black's voice in front of her. She looked up and was almost brought to tears by what she saw. Black was there, holding out in his left hand, a glass able to hold 30 fluid ounces. It was filled to the brim with the red fluid that Nao knew well was blood, the top rather foamy for blood. When she looked at Black's wrist, it was covered with a thin web-like material. Standing there at the door was Slash, using a towel that was being stained red as he was wiping the blood off of his right blade.

"...I... no... Black... I couldn't... ask you to do this for me... really, it's ok. You don't need to do this."

As a matter of fact, Nao, this is necessary. I would recommend that you drink all of this while it's still fresh and warm."

"I... Black... I went down to Hell because of all the innocent lives that I had destroyed... I couldn't possibly bear to destroy yet another one, much less have them kill themselves for me... I'm sorry, but this generous offer... I just can't accept it."

"Drink it, you shit." Black said in a very stern voice, which immediately let Nao know that he was starting to get pissed off. "I didn't have my Slash cut me for nothing, and a little blood means nothing if it helps save a life, so drink the God damn blood." Nao looked at him in the eyes, and saw that all he wanted to do was help her. Nevertheless, she couldn't accept the blood, and was trying her best to resist.

"...Ok, if that's the case, then I think a little understanding must be reached." Angel of D said as she got up and levitated to Nao. The dragon got close to the shiki, and began to speak softly to her, just like her older sister always did when she was sad or beaten by her drunkards of parents. "Nao, listen, we understand that right now, the only thing you really want is to stay away from Hell forever... you have to know that at this moment, the only thing that can keep you from going back down there is if you stay alive. If you don't accept the blood, and you don't attack anybody like you say you won't, then the only option is for you to die... and I don't think any of us want you to go back down there..."

The words ere seemingly getting to Nao, and she looked back at Black, who was still holding the glass out. "Well, on that note, you have a choice Nao. You can either accept what I'm giving you, and we start some kind of meal plan that I'll be able to feed you daily, or you can just decline again, in which case I don't offer this to you again, and we see how long you can last without it... make your choice." Black said.

Nao couldn't be sure of what to do anymore. She didn't want to die, but she also didn't want to have Black hurt himself just so she doesn't have to die. It was a battle of desires, whether she should decide to let herself die to make sure Black could stay alive, or risk Black's life just so she could save her own. It was incredibly hard to make her decision, but after a few minutes of thinking, where Black remained patient as he waited an answer, she finally made her decision.

Almost as if she was afraid he'd try to take it away from her, she quickly grabbed the glass out of Black's hand. She gave Black one more look in the eyes before she drank it, as if to ask him if he was really sure this was something he wanted to do. He only gave a slight nod accompanied by that same serious look. Reluctantly and very slowly, she brought the glass to her lips, and began to drink the blood that was so willingly offered to her.

As a shiki, she was able to actually tell about how a person viewed life just by the taste of their blood. In this case, when the blood first entered her mouth, it was rather bitter, like a fresh herb. However, when she gulped down a mouthful of blood, it always left this sweet aftertaste slipping on her tongue, which tasted sweet like honey. This told her that Black was a rather bitter person, and didn't seem to see much joy in life, but deep down in there, he also has a very gentle nature that's willing to do anything for anyone, as proved to him giving his blood to her.

She didn't know how long she was taking, or how slowly she was drinking it, but after very slow gulps and choking back her tears, she had finally finished the blood. Giving the glass back to Black, she gave a nod to him, and whispered ever so silently, "Thank you... Thank you so much..."

Black gave a nod back and tossed the glass to Slash. The mantis, in return, gave Black a rather concerned look before heading back into the kitchen with the glass. "Now listen, I'm not 100% sure how much blood a shiki will need daily to survive, so here's what I'm going to try. I'm going to try to give you that exact amount of blood daily, and hope that it'll be enough for you. Can you agree to this?" Black explained as he sat down near Nao again.

"But... but what if you can't... that was quite an amount of blood you gave me just now... and I don't know how much more you can afford to give..."

"I'm not sure if I'm giving too much away, nor do I know how many days I'll be able to afford doing this without risking my own life, but I'll try as hard as I can."

"But... ok... if you're really willing to do this for me... then I'll follow."

"Good. Then it's settled then." Black said as he got back up. Nao just smiled, a bit happy that she finally had another friend. "...Now, if you would follow me. I'd like to get you some clothing. Afterall, it may be just me, but I don't think it would be a good idea if you walked around here in nothing in your undies.

Q: With each new generation, there comes new Pokemon; here's my list of my favorite Pokemon from each region:

Kanto: Charizard

Johto: Ho-oh

Hoenn: Deoxys

Sinnoh: Darkrai

Unova: Genesect

Kalos: (supposedly there might be 3 new legendary Pokemon in that game, so for now, I'm gonna wait until I see the supposed new Pokemon before I make a decision)

On that note, tell me your favorite Pokemon from each region.


	4. Our Filthy Little Guilt

Unstable Alliance

April 9, 2014

"You sure this rope's going to be enough to hold her down?" a familiar voice said.

The familiar voice caused Nao to wake up. She felt the familiar feel of grass and dirt, signifying she was laying on the ground. But what was she doing there? She specifically remembered falling asleep on the bed that was provided for her, how did she get on the ground?

"Yes... I made sure that not even someone like her would be able to squirm their way out of the bonds." said another familiar, more feminine voice. "...It's almost sad really... I really cared for her at one time... and now, I can't even bear to look at her... she's not the same as the Nao I used to know..."

"That... that voice..." Nao whispered, with her eyes still closed. "...So familiar... so calming... so... Miyuki?..."

She tried to get up, but noticed that her hands felt like they were stuck together. She also tried to move her legs, but they felt the same way. Opening her eyes, she looked at her arms, which seemed to be locked in front of her chest, and gave a horrified scream at what she saw. Her hands were bound together at the wrists by a tightly tied rope. She looked back at her legs, and they were also tied together with a rope at the ankles. Giving off another scream, she began to struggle, trying to pull her hands and feet free, but it was no use. She couldn't escape.

"Well well, look who finally woke up." said the first familiar voice, tainted by malice and unforgiving rage. As Nao looked up above her, she was coldly greeted by 2 familiar faces. The first being that of a man with blonde hair and a blonde goatee, with a pair of eyes that could chill to the bone. The other was a woman's face; one that was usually shining with happiness and love was now dimmed and darkened. Her hair was short and brown, and she had the same color of eyes that Nao had before she became a Shiki.

"Sadafumi? Miyuki?" Nao questioned as the 2 continued to leer at her, the man's face containing vengeance and hatred, while the woman's eyes were too clouded to be able to tell. They looked like a mixture of love and sadness, or maybe of pity and anger. Whatever it was, the look she was giving her made her feel down in the gutter.

"Sadafumi, Miyuki, what am I doing-" she said, trying to get up out of instinct, but immediately remembered the ropes that bound her as they prevented her to get into the standing position she so desired. She began to struggle against her binds again, groaning and moaning out of strain. Her efforts were fruitless, yet she continued to tug against them anyway, as if she expected this to make the others feel sorry for her and help her out.

When she saw that both the people did nothing, and didn't even move an inch, that's when she began to beg to them. "You guys, you have to help me. I-I-I can't move." she pleaded as she attempted to lift her hands up to show them, but this was impossible. When she looked behind her, she was that both the ropes that bound her limbs were tied around a metal pole, which had one end stuck in the ground and the other bent beyond repair, making it absolutely impossible to lift the ropes off of it.

"And just why would we do that?" the man asked as he crossed his arms and gave a gloating grin at her. "After all, it's supposed to make it so that you can't move. That's the whole point." These words cut through Nao's heart like a stake.

"But... but Sadafumi, I... I..." She was trying desperately to think of a reason why he should let her free, but she couldn't. She was too afraid to think straight.

"What's the matter? At a loss of words?" the man named Sadafumi said, with that same icy grin that was starting to make Nao cringe. It was literally as if he read her mind. "You should have known this was coming to you Nao. After all, what goes around, comes around, am I right?" He then looked over to the girl, who had to be Miyuki, waiting for her to answer the question.

"...Yes... I suppose..." she said looking at Nao, then looking at Sadafumi as she began to finish her statement. "And with that in mind, Sadafumi, it makes me a bit nervous as to what we're sending around that's gonna come right back to us." Whether she was joking or serious Nao couldn't tell, and her words came out in a way that made it sound like she didn't respect Sadafumi's way of gloating at the poor girl. Nevertheless, Sadafumi gave a quiet chuckle and shrugged as he reached for something in his pocket afterwards.

The begging with Sadafumi wasn't really going anywhere, so she decided to look back to the other person, hoping that maybe she could get through to her. "Miy... Miyuki... you'll help me... right?" she asked as she wanted to just reach up and grab her ankle. Miyuki, however, just turned her head and looked away. "Miyuki... you... you can't leave me like this, I... I... you can't do this to me!" Nao said, her voice a mixture of anger and fear.

As she spoke these words, the other woman seemed to growl a bit and tighten her fist, with both of these actions becoming louder and more frequently as the poor woman bound to the ground continued to try to talk to her. "How could you possibly do this to me?! How could you?! I thought you loved me! I thought you cared for me!"

"Shut up..." Miyuki whispered quietly as the growling ceased but her fists continued to shake violently and angrily.

Nao, not hearing what the woman just told her, continued to talk as tears were starting to come up from her eyes. "You promised that no matter what you would always love me! You promised that no matter what, I would always be your little sister! You promised!"

That's when the woman finally turned around. It hurt to have her own older sister's foot suddenly come and kicked Nao in the center of her chest. It was such a hit that it made Nao flip over and lay on her back instead of her front. "Shut the fuck up!" Miyuki yelled after the impact was made. This made Nao's eyes widen and her mouth began to quiver as she tried not to burst out in crying. She remembered once she yelled the same thing to Miyuki for no reason, so it was a real slap to the face to have it happen to her.

Shakingly, she turned her head to face them again. The man's hate-filled eyes and malicious grin were now replaced with a closed mouth and wide eyes of shock as he looked at Miyuki. It was obvious that he wasn't expecting her to lash out at her like that, and he had every right to be surprised. Miyuki was always a kind and loving human being, never once getting angry with anyone. Even when somebody was trying to get on her nerves, she always greeted them with that same warm smile that had the potential to make the most hateful serial killers drop to their knees and beg her for forgiveness. Never in her life could she ever hold a grudge, nor even lose her happy mood.

And there she was, standing straight up, with a face that would make the girl from Exorcist back away slowly. Nao only looked at those burning blue eyes, trying not to cry out of fear and sadness. "S... sister... how... how could you..."

Miyuki obviously didn't want to hear it, and grabbed a rock the size of her hand, and threw it at Nao as hard as she could. The shiki let out a pained scream as the rock came in contact with her forehead, slamming her head back onto the ground. "Don't you dare call me your sister! I've had it with you and your God damn attempts to hurt me!" Miyuki screamed. Even Sadafumi, after lighting a cigarrette he had put in his mouth, took a step back as Miyuki she closer to her little sister.

"We promised each other that no matter what happened, even when we lost our mother and our father, we would always be there for each other! That we would never do anything to hurt each other! Do you think that I was the happy-go-lucky woman everyone claimed me to be?! I was always there for you Nao, but whenever I needed your help the most, you were never there! You've been breaking your promise from the very beginning!" she screamed.

Nao only stared at her sister's eyes, trying to dig up some form of pity. "Miyuki... I... I didn't do anything to hurt you... I could never harm you." she blubbered, but she knew that deep down, she was lying.

Miyuki also seemed to know, and kicked Nao again, this time, aiming for where the rock had hit her, which was bruised and trickling with blood. The impact caused Nao's head to move back and bounce as it came in contact with the earth, and the bleeding seemed to have gotten a little worse. "Don't you dare lie to me! I've tried to be a good sister, I even was willing to let you in my house when you came back! I've done everything for you without expecting anything in return, and as a reward for what I did, you murdered me and the rest of your family, just because you couldn't accept what we were!"

Nao couldn't believe it. How could her sister possibly think something like that? They were each other's flesh and blood, willing to do absolutely anything for each other. "N...no... you... don't understand... I... I love you, all of you... I killed you so that we could be a family forever... I... I love you with all my-"

"Don't tell me... you love us with all your heart..." Miyuki finished for her. Nao could have said more, but before she could, Miyuki had placed her foot on the center of Nao's chest, and began to press it down. Nao was cringing in pain and sadness as her tears slowly oozed out of her eyes. "A dead heart, that neither beats or lives... cold, meaning absolutely nothing to anyone... that was what you were about to say... right sis?"

These words finally did it, and Nao couldn't take it anymore. She began to sob and weep like a baby. "I'm so sorry Miyuki! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean for all of this to happen! I just wanted all of us to be together as a family forever!" These words seemed to have gotten to her older sister, but only a bit. Giving off an agitated sigh, her eyes of hatred were now replaced with the same eyes she saw when she first woke up. She let her foot off of Nao's chest, but the pain still lingered. "Please... don't hate me for what I did... I just wanted to be with you all..."

Miyuki's voice was no longer filled with resentment over Nao, but it was unclear what kind of emotion it did hold. "...You killed me because you would have died if you didn't..." Nao gave a nod, as this was the truth. Perhaps now she was finally starting to understand. Maybe she would be able to help her after all. "...Now I see... you never truly loved us at all. You killed all of us because you couldn't live so long as we did. You deemed our lives to be insignificant compared to yours."

These words were like hail covered in fire to the shiki. "No. No, I could never think that-"

"I was willing to die for you because I thought that was what I was supposed to be willing to do for my baby sister... I guess I was wrong. I suppose that no matter what, the lives around one are not as important or needed as their own."

"Miyuki, no. I-I just wanted all of us to be happy." she said, trying to get her sister to understand.

"...I'm the only sister you ever had, and yet you continue to lie to me..." Miyuki said as she crossed her arms. "You didn't want all of us to be happy at all. You just wanted to be happy yourself, and you wouldn't have given a damn whether we would be miserable or not. Everything you've ever done as one of these heartless abominations you've done for yourself. You don't care about me, Mikiyasu, Susumu, or anyone else. All that matters in your world is you."

"No... that's... not... true..." Nao said, trying to deny it, but there was doubt that began to swing upwards.

"Is that what we really were to you?" Miyuki continued, obviously not caring about what Nao could possibly say. "Just a bunch of tools that you used and threw away to make sure you stayed content in life? Did you really think that we would have wanted to become these blood sucking freaks, even if it meant we would live together forever?"

That's when even Nao began to think that Miyuki was right. No sort of words or actions could deny what her sister was getting into her. She had only been thinking about what she wanted to happen, and never once thought about what her husband, son and in-laws would have wanted, and her sister was obviously no exception.

Nao began to cry again, wallowing in her self-pity and misery. "Why... why did I have to rise up?... Why couldn't I have just stayed dead?... Maybe if I did, I would be able to see you guys after you die... why... why did I have to be the one that rose up and caused misery? Why couldn't it have been anybody else?"

Whether she was also referring to her family when she said anybody else or not she really didn't know. She was only thinking about herself, at least that's what she's been brought to believe. "...Nao... there's only one being that can possibly know the answer to that..." Before she finished her sentence, she looked up to the sky, and stared at it for a bit, her eyes regaining the look of pity Nao was familiar with. "...Luckily for you, it looks like you'll be meeting Him very shortly..." With those words, she put her head down and walked back to Sadafumi.

"...So you're ready then?" Sadafumi asked her. Miyuki gave a nod, and the 2 of them took each others hand, and walked towards a familiar looking structure, which housed a ladder leading to what appeared to be a sewer.

"No... Miyuki, wait. Please don't leave me to-" she started as she began to look behind her, but immediately froze up when she saw what was coming. The sun was now a pretty glowing orange color, and it continued to get brighter and brighter as it was rising overhead. "No... no! No! Oh God, please no! Help me!" Despite her begging for mercy, for someone to come and relieve her of this, the sun's warm bright light finally crept its way up and showered Nao with its radiance.

The second that the light came in contact with her pail skin, she could feel her eyes dilate. She could feel her own flesh and skin beginning to burn and peel off. She began screaming in great pain, desperately tugging at the binding force of the ropes to no avail. She was crying out of the desire for someone to pity her, but nobody did. She raised her eyes up to where Miyuki and Sadafumi were sitting together hand-in-hand, staring at Nao, and she could also see 6 other blurry figures coming into form.

When they finally cleared up, they were the members of her extended family that had died because of her. Her husband, her son, her mother and father-in-law, and even her brother and sister-in-law were there, also staring at Nao with that same, emotionless stare.

Nao couldn't stand this pain, and tried to beg for one of them to help her. "Mikiyasu! I love you! I love you more than I could have known! Please don't leave me to burn here!"

"...Do you really love me?... Did you love me even when you attacked me and the others?" he asked coldly. It was so unlike Mikiyasu to be so unhappy, he used to be so kind and considerate to the others. Nevertheless, he turned his back on Nao and began to walk away, fading out in the bright wight void that was behind them.

No, it can't be true. She couldn't have cared only for herself. She loved all of them, even when she had risen. "Susumu! Please! It's me! It's mommy!"

"...I don't know how I could have possibly loved you in the first place... I don't know why I still do..." Susumu, her one and only child, said, his voice breaking up. He still loved her, even after all she had done. He turned around, and walked into the same void with his father.

It couldn't be true. It just couldn't. Her family couldn't have left her here alone. She was nothing but a child, so scared and unable to do anything except beg. "Mother! Father! Help me! Please! I beg you! I don't want to die!"

"Do you really think I wanted to die when you killed me Nao?" her mother-in-law, Setsuko, responded. Then, at that very moment, all the bite wounds she had gotten when she was attacked by all those shiki began to pour blood, as if to remind Nao what she had caused. With no more words, she turned around and walked disappeared into the void with the others.

"I'm glad we didn't come back. Death is better than becoming what you are girl." her father-in-law, Tokujirou, said. That was a pair of words that made Nao think it would have been better if she killed herself the second she rose. She didn't have time to ask him before he followed the other 3 into that indescribable light.

There had to have been someone that could show her mercy, anybody. "Brother! Sister! Please! You're the only family I have left!"

"No Nao, we're not. You don't have any family anymore. You killed all of them, remember?" her sister-in-law stated. "You really don't think of anybody but yourself, do you?" With that, she walked to join the others in that light that she could never reach.

"You know, I knew that Mikiyasu could have done a lot better than you. Give my regards to your drunkards of a mother and father when you see them." He was laying it straight that he hopes she burns in Hell like her parents. WIth that, he walked into the light void with the others and disappeared.

As she continued to cry and sob out of the pain that the sun inflicted on her, she could see her sister get up, obviously to join the rest of her family in wherever they were. "Goodbye Sadafumi..." she said before kissing him on the forehead and walking into the light and disappearing. Sadafumi seemed quite sad that she had to leave, and he looked to the ground as Nao was without anyone in her family to comfort her as she continued to burn and scream.

"...I've dragged this out for far enough..." he muttered as he looked up, and gave a nod in Nao's direction, signifying something. He couldn't have nodded to her, but what was he nodding at? Just then, she heard a pair of footsteps slowly making their way towards her from behind as Sadafumi looked back down, as if unwilling to see what happens next. There was someone behind her.

She looked and gasped at what she was. There he was, her only human friend, the one boy that was able to show her mercy when he saw her. The kind and sweet individual that so selflessly fed her with his very own blood was now standing right behind her, wearing a face of evil triumph and sick satisfaction. It was just when he began to bring it up that Nao noticed the big axe that he was carrying. He was slowly bringing it up above his head.

"BLACK! NO!" she screamed, which made Black give off an evil sinister laughter as he finally brought the axe to its resting position. It was clear that he was aiming to dispatch her head from her neck.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

She finally awoke from the nightmare, chilling sweat running on her skin.

It had been more than a month since Nao and Black met for the first time, and somehow, they were still able to keep the feeding plan that was set up going. From what Black said, Genesect had built him a machine that would regulate his blood level, whether it became too high or too low, but how it was able to put new blood into him or where the old blood went was unclear. Nevertheless, it seemed to do the job, which was fine by both her and him.

She took some time to recollect herself and think about what she had just seen. None of what she saw could have been true, could it? She loved her family, even if they weren't there with her.

_You deemed our lives to be insignificant compared to yours_. Those were the words that played in her head as she continued to think. She tried to deny it and forget about it, but the doubt of whether it was a lie or not was clear. "...I... I killed them... to save myself..." she whispered to herself as she continued to search for evidence to prove that this statement was obsolete. On and on, she dug through the memories of her brain, trying to salvage something that proved she wasn't the selfish monster that her dream had described herself as, but she just couldn't. When she had killed all of her family, she was only thinking about how she wanted to be happy; never once did she take the time to think about what they would have wanted.

"...Miyuki... you... you were right... I'm nothing but a selfish coward..." she whispered again as she was beginning to tear up. She was ready to get up, but she finally registered the feeling of something being on her chest. When she looked to her chest, she saw a cute little pink cat peacefully sleeping there. She remembered Black naming it Psycat, but he also stated something about how the cat was a Pokémon named Mew.

Nao, seeing the cute little Pokémon, let out a faint little smile as she gently stroked her head. Psycat, feeling the affection, woke up with a pur as she opened her eyes and let them lay on Nao. "Good morning, little kitty." Nao whispered quietly.

"Mew." Psycat responded happily as she began purring and rubbing her head against Nao's breasts. Nao couldn't help but giggle a bit. The thing was so unbearably cute that it was just impossible to resist laughing with her happiness.

After a good couple minutes of Nao petting Psycat, she finally got off of her, letting Nao get up and walk around. She could tell by the way the curtains were closed and all the windows were shut that it was somewhere in the day. Thankfully, Black had began to make sure that during the day, there would be as little sunlight as possible in the house, so that none of it would disturb Nao while she's still in there.

Speaking of Black, she was outside the gigantic plaza they call a family room when she heard Black in there. Honestly, the place was so huge, it was an absolute wonder how barely anybody knew this was where Black lived. There must have been some pretty convincing disclaimers that were able to divert that belief. "Yeah! That's what I'm talking about!" Black said as he sat in front of his TV and played a game that Genesect had shown him a while back. From what Nao could remember, Genesect called the game Team Fortress 2. She really didn't see any appeal to it, but apparently Black did.

"There, see? I knew you would love it." Genesect said as it watched its trainer play the game.

"Ohoho! Yeah! You were right Genesect, this is 100x better than Call of Duty." he said. "Going Ubercharge, now!"

He seemed to be doing rather well she supposed. He wasn't really doing much of anything except hiding behind his teammates it seemed. "You know Black, you may suck pretty bad at all the other classes, except maybe Pyro, but I gotta admit, you're not too shabby when it comes to being Medic." Genesect said.

"Yeah. I think I'm a pretty good Medic." he said. Then, he seemed to have gotten a little ticked off when he was suddenly killed. "...Though it seems that I still have a big problem with these Spies..."

As long as he was enjoying himself, it seemed to be ok. Nao was thinking about going over and at least saying good morning, but then again, it could have been afternoon for all she knew. More than that, she had a lot on her mind now, so she would just wait to see if he notices her.

"...Well... anyways sir... Birdy flew over Sotaba just last night when you gave him the order to find your 3DS... as it turns out, from what Birdy says, the number of corpses in that place have somehow depleted."

This subject made Black freeze up, and even look away from the screen. "...Hey guys, sorry, but I gotta go." he said into the headset he was wearing. He disconnected from the server he was on, and turned back to Genesect. "...Is that right?... And just how much depletion are we talking about."

"CALCULATING... CALCULATING..." Sometimes, Black really wished his Genesect could just tell him this kind of stuff without going into his freaking full-blown robot voice. "NUMBER OF CORPSES FOUND ON FEBRUARY 18, 2014... 2,153... CALCULATING... CALCULATING... NUMBER OF CORPSES FOUND ON APRIL 8, 2014... 1,243."

Black stared at Genesect for a minute. "...So that would be... uh... give me a minute..." Black said as he began to count with his fingers and muttering to himself. "Uh... let's see... take the 3 and subtract it by the 3... subtract 5 by 4... subtract 1 by 2, but you can't do that, so you have to... um... God damn it, I knew I shouldn't have started ditching school." he cursed, covering his forehead with the palm of his hand. "Uh... carry a 1 from 2000 over to the 100, making it 1,000 and 1,100... subtract the 11 by 2, and..."

Finally, after the school dropout finally did the problem (which any sensible 2nd grader could have done and run to the nearest McDonalds and buy a soup can in the time it takes him to do basic math), he turned to his Genesect. "That's a 910 body difference. That's quite a number to go missing."

"Yes, so I believe you know what that means." Genesect said, sitting down on the couch.

"...Well, it could have 2 possibilities. The one is that somebody was spying on us when we hacked the thing, so now they know how to hack it, so they've been practicing a few Graverobber skills..." Black said sarcastically. He was a walking sign that being a total smartass and a complete moron at the same time is probably the worst combination a person can have. "Or, the more obvious reason, Nao's not the only one of her kind that's coming back, and we're missing a lot of them."

Nao couldn't believe what she was hearing, and gave out a faint gasp as she did. Does that mean all the people she knew could rise up again? Tohru? Chizuru? Sasaki?

"Yes... that would seem the cause... the only question is how are they rising up... I've discussed it with the other 5, and we're ready to go out and investigate tonight if we-"

"No... at least not all of you." Black said with a sigh. He got up and took a glass of Fresh Water that was laying on the table in front of him and took a few sips of it. "We got a few important things tonight, you see. Angel of Darkness has her little family hunt and dinner, Birdy's gotta make sure all the Pidove can successfully fly elsewhere for when the winter returns, Ghosta's got that little water dancing competition-"

"That just leaves Destroyer Slash and I. We got nothing going on tonight, and if I remember correctly, when we have to split up into 2 groups, the 3 of us are always put together." Genesect said as it was trying to find something to give Black a but of convincing. Genesect was just as curious as Black and Nao as to how the shiki could be coming back to life.

"Yes... hm... how strangely convenient of a coincidence." Black said rubbing his chin in thought. It almost made Nao crack up, having somebody use such intelligent words, and yet he can't even do very simple subtraction. "...Very well then, that settles it. Tonight, while Ghosta, Birdy, Angel of Darkness and I are doing what we have to do, you, Destroyer and Slash will go over to Sotaba and try to make sense of what's going on."

"...Um... Black, I don't believe I heard you correctly... I could have sworn that you said something about you not going to be going back to Sotaba with us." Genesect asked, turning its head in a bit of curiosity.

"Oh no, if you heard me say that, then it was no mistake. I would like to go with you, I really would, but unfortunately, I have a few very important details to attend to." Black said as he put his hand on his chin to think. "Hm... oh! I got an idea! You'll be going to Sotaba at night. Why don't you take Nao with you? I think she could use a bit of fresh air."

Nao was a bit reluctant on that idea, but just kept quiet. She thought that it might get Black mad if he figured out that she was eavesdropping on his whole conversation. "Oh, yes... give Nao a bit of fresh air... not that she can even breathe it or feel it if she gets it."

"Oh come now Genesect. I understand that you're still a little reluctant to trust Nao, but come on. That insident was over a month ago, and we haven't had another one like that ever since. Besides, even if she tries to attack you, which I know she won't, you guys will be able to take care of the problem without any effort. You got this."

Genesect began walking towards the door Nao was standing outside when Black immediately went back to playing his game, spawning as a class he claimed was called Pyro. Though it was rather faint and understand, Nao was able to make out some faint, robotic muttering Genesect was making as it was walking. "Ggrr... stupid, self confident, God damn son of a..."

When Genesect walked out the door and closed it behind it, it noticed Nao standing there. She didn't make any reactions except just look back. "...Did you hear the conversation?" Genesect asked as it fully turned its body to face Nao.

"...Well, I don't know if I heard all of it, but... a good deal of it, at least."

"Good. Then be ready, I'd say no later than... say 7:45 P.M. We got quite a night ahead of us."

XXX

The way back to Sotaba, so many memories, good ones and bad... that's all that Nao had on their journey.

She had entered and exited Sotaba on many occasions when she was still a human, and never would she ever expect the way to turn into what it had become.

The road that led into the village had apparently been long since removed, and replaced with what was like an open field.

There were a lot more trees than she remembered the last time she was there. It was as if after the events of what happened 20 years ago, the earth decided to grow once more.

"It's... changed so much..." Nao whispered to herself as she and the 3 Pokémon, Slash, Destroyer and Genesect went on.

She didn't know whether she wanted them to hear her or not, but apparently Destroyer caught what she said and decided to join the conversation. "Indeed... I'm not the very brightest of the Pokémon, but I can only assume that such things can change very quickly in a mere blink of an eye... but 20 years..."

Nao couldn't help but have curiosity eat at her a bit. If she was any one of them, she would be rather nervous, consisting that they were only half of the team instead of all 6 of them. "Say, why did Black only send you 3? Why couldn't he get all 6 of you to come?" she asked as they continued on.

This time, along with his jumping into the trees to jump from branch to branch to kill some energy, he spoke this time. "Nao, what you must understand is that it is actually very rare that Black is able to send all 6 of us to one place at a time. More than likely, he has to separate us into smaller groups to do what we have to. Since the other 3 were doing something elsewhere, he thought it would be better if the 3 of us go and drag you along... honestly I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Wouldn't have it any other way?" Nao asked as they moved along. "You mean you're not bothered at all by the fact that you're working in a seperate group?"

Genesect was the next to speak up. "Well, we don't mind being in a group of 3 as long as the 3 of us are in the same one. See, whenever we are divided into 2 groups, Black has a special system he uses to separate us. He separates us into these 2 teams, us and the remaining 3, due to how they travel." Genesect could easily tell that Nao had no idea what it was talking about. "Ok, I'll put it like this. The 3 of us are always together because we usually walk to get around. We're basically Black's Ground Unit. The other 3, his Air Force, are put together due to their ability to fly... well, I have jets in me that allow me to fly, but he thought it would be better if I was in his Ground Unit."

Nao reluctantly nodded her head in understanding. She understood Black's logic now, but she still couldn't find out why he chose those names for his teams.

After a few minutes more of traveling, they finally came to the big iron gates of Sotaba, closed and looking as if Black and his Pokémon had never been there. Nao just stared at it in great awe. "_This... this... this can't be Sotaba... can it?_"

"Genesect, be honest with me. We're not really going to have to wait for you to hack all this crap again, do we?"

"Heh. My fiery friend, did you honestly think that I would let such a thing as this slip my mind?" Genesect said proudly as it walked over to the computer device attached to the side of the gate, and began typing things down. "Before I informed all of you that I had fully hacked the thing, I made sure that I got the passwords to every single one of these defenses down to a "t". I was able to lock the whole system back up again, so unless Seishin somehow came around to expect something, I should be able to get in absolutely no problem."

"...Sei... Seishin?... Do you mean Seishin Muroi?" Nao asked, rather intrigued.

These words made all of them freeze up. Destroyer moved his head to face Nao, Slash stopped doing whatever crazy dance he was doing in the trees, and Genesect stopped typing for a little bit. Nao became a little concerned as to why they did this, and began to wonder if she had just asked a question she shouldn't have.

"...You knew him?" Destroyer asked as he crossed his arms and leaned against one of the trees that was burnt to black.

"...Y... yes... he was in Sotaba... he was the human that worked with us shiki..."

These words seemed to have gotten the Pokemon's absolute attention. "So those rumors were right too, he was in Sotaba when it happened... tell me... was Muroi just a human, or was he one of you as well?"

"I... I don't know... he was human the last time I knew, but... that could have changed at any point in time when I was dead... I'm sorry, I can't answer that question."

Destroyer gave an understanding nod, and looked back at Genesect, who began typing again as soon as Destroyer looked at it. "Ok, then we shut the guns down... turn off all the electric defense systems... that just leaves the gate... blah blah blah... and, there we go. Ok, now, are you all ready, to enter a world of unknown horror, that no worldly fear could possibly be able to-"

"Just open the door and let us in, dip shit." Slash said as he crossed his blade arms after jumping down to the ground again.

"Well jeez. No sense of humor today, eh Slash?" Genesect said as it turned around and clicked a few things on the screen.

The 2 iron doors that guarded that place parted way, showing them all a familiar sight of black ashes. It was a bit amazing to know that at such a powerful storm that hit when Black went in there with his Pokémon, the ashes are still laying there. The trees, however, were strong indicators that a natural phenomena had happened. Whatever trees that were still weakened from the burning of Sotaba 20 years ago were now toppled over; some completely broken, shattered into a good number of pieces, others still rather intact.

Nao was absolutely horrified at what she saw. All of this happening to a village that was once so bustling with life, a place that she loved beyond anything and called home. The place where she got married to her husband Mikiyasu, and had her son Susumu, and this is what happened to it? She couldn't have possibly been one of the ones to cause it, could she?

She felt Destroyer's big meaty hand grab her shoulder as he gripped it as gently as he could (which really wasn't saying a lot, since it still felt like someone was trying to squeeze the crap out of it). It was a sort of friendly tap on the shoulder, if you could even call it a tap. "Welcome home girl." he said as he looked out there along with her. Whereas the others were still a little reluctant with Nao being around, Destroyer seemed to have grown to trust her enough to befriend her without any worries. So long as Black had her under control, he didn't see the point of being afraid of her.

"...No... this isn't my home... this isn't the same Sotaba I remember... in the Sotaba I knew, the streets were so lively and bursting with joy, not dead and silent in this wasteland... the Sotaba I knew was a happy place, where there were was nothing about that place that didn't make you feel that you had some sense of belonging... the Sotaba I knew-"

"Is dead." Slash finished for her, preferring it if she didn't go on like this forever. It seemed beneficial, at least to him, to just get to the point of the whole thing. "The Sotaba you knew is destroyed forever, devoured by a fire that couldn't be extinguished... the Sotaba you knew is nothing more but a lost memory, under the concern of absolutely nobody... at least, that was what it was until we were able to get in. Now, I feel that something big is going to happen here..."

"...Guys... what happened here?... I mean, after I died, that is..."

"We don't really know..." Destroyer said as he crossed his arms. "Nao, what you have to understand is that Black wasn't alive when this happened, so he has no idea what went on except from what his father told him, and we don't know anything except from what he told us... his father was interested about what happened to Sotaba. A lot of people were."

"Oh, great. More stories that will only slow us down."

"Hey, cacoon-head. Shut up, I'm telling her the story."

"Oh please. If we just got this crap down, we could have been home about 5 seconds ago."

"Oh, yeah. I bet those smart ass comments of yours won't be very useful when you find out they're not fireproof." Nao couldn't help but feel the urge to laugh at how effectively that shut Slash up. He literally did nothing but just looked down, crossed his arms and make a grunting sound. He couldn't deny that if he were to fight Destroyer there and now, he wouldn't stand a chance, given both his and Destroyer's move sets. Slash only knew 2 Grass and 2 Bug type moves, and Destroyer had a Rock and 2 Fire type moves with his Fight type move, so Slash was in no situation to be giving any threats. This made Nao cover her mouth, trying to suppress her giggles.

"Yeah, that shut him up, didn't it?... Now, if there are no further interruptions... after the destruction of Sotaba, supposedly a bunch of people became curious about what happened to it. A bunch of people made plans to go up and do documentaries on that place, which greatly troubled Seishin Muroi... who just so happens to be the current president, but not the point. Anyways, as the president, Seishin ordered that this place be made sure that nobody would ever get in and find out what really happened... and for a number of years, it worked."

"I don't mean to be rude or anything..." Genesect interrupted as it and Slash stood at the gate, waiting. "...but I would prefer it if we could get working now."

"Oh, so now you're going to try to get me to stop, eh?"

"Not at all. I really don't care whether you tell the story or not, but I do mind it if we could maybe get some work done in the process. You can walk and talk at the same time, it's not that big of a deal."

"...Well, if you insist." With that said, Destroyer, Nao and the other 2 walked into Sotaba, and searched around for any evidence that could lead up to the shiki's return.

"Now... anyways... even though it would cause a crap ton of suspicion as to why he did it, Muroi gave an order that no living man or woman would ever set foot in that place again. Even if someone had the balls to go in there, they would be killed by the defenses he set up in there, with a password that only he knows."

"Really?... But... if only Seishin Muroi knows the password on how to get in there, how did you guys get in?"

To this Destroyer gave a proud smirk as he looked over to Genesect. "Nao, not even all of the security systems in the United States and China combined can keep our little techhead over there from hacking in. With that in mind, how can you possibly expect a simple president to be able to keep him out?"

"The United States?... Have... you been there? My son always wanted to go there sometime, just to see what it was like."

"Yeah, we've been there back in like... 2013, but that's it. If you ever do go there, I think I should make it clear. There are a bunch of... stereotypes for America, depicting us as lazy, greedy, fat idiots... well, that's only 33% right. Another 33% goes to the exact opposites. The other 34%... I'd say is stuck somewhere in between all that."

"Oh... so... I know we have to keep going here, but was the trip you had to the U.S. exciting?" To this, Destroyer couldn't help but make a funny face as he was trying to keep himself from laughing. Genesect obviously knew what Destroyer was thinking of that he thought was so funny, because it ended up looking down a bit, as if embarrassed.

"Oh yeah... I'll put it this way. The trip to the United States really was fun..." Slash said. Before he continued on, he ended up getting an amused smirk and looked over to Genesect. "Until a certain brainiac of ours decided to shut the entire U.S. Defense System down for a day or 2."

"I told you Slash, that was not my fault. I just wanted to see why the Pentagon was so secretive and important, and I accidentally ended up uploading some kind of ultravirus." Genesect said, trying to justify its mistake in any way possible.

"But wasn't there a lot more than the Pentagon you tried to get into? I thought you also tried to undermine some info from... what was it called again? NOTO?" Destroyer asked, with that same amused look.

"Um... oh, NATO... yeah, I tried to get in that too."

"And that Area 51."

"Oh come on, is it really so bad for a robot to be curious whether we're alone in the-"

"And what about that ObamaCare website you wanted to know more about too?"

"Ok, so maybe I tried a little more than just one government building, but that doesn't mean I intentionally tried to-"

"And what about that one time you hacked into the President's email address and sent a message to North Korea stating that if they don't stop 'being a bunch of little pricks', they were gonna launch their nukes at them?" Slash asked as they continued walking.

"That one doesn't count! Nothing happened after that!" Genesect countered hurriedly.

"Now that I think about it, I lied. You didn't just shut the Defense Systems down, you literally knocked their entire government out of whack." Slash said.

"It's not like they weren't a big mess of a government anyway! I told you guys a million times, their politics are just like what Black claimed them to be: full of white trash with not nearly enough cans of beer to shut them up."

To this, even Nao had to cover her mouth and snicker to keep from busting out laughing. She thought it was actually pretty funny, having these 3 Pokémon that are supposed to work really well together, and yet they seem to argue like it's the only thing they know. "Well, at least someone's entertained by this." Destroyer said with a chuckle.

"I... I'm sorry, I got us really off topic here." Nao said in between short laughs. "Um... anyways, we were talking about what went on in Sotaba? Like... why did Black come here in the first place?"

"Why?" Destroyer asked, confused. "You know why he..." His eyes opened up as he realized they really didn't tell her much about his intentions. "Oh, right! I can't believe we forgot to mention that. Um... well... from what Black says, he really wouldn't have had any interests of Sotaba had it not been for his father. As we said earlier, he was quite curious as to what happened to Sotaba, and unlike everybody else, he carried that interest the whole time, and even passed it on to Black."

Genesect continued on from there. "For years, his father had desired to see that place, to know what exactly was up there, past that great iron gate, but nobody knew how to get in. Even so, he still kept the desire alive by remembering the stories told of it, and telling them to his family. He wanted nothing more than to finally see the secrets for himself..."

That's when Nao couldn't help but feel happy for Black. His father wanted to know the secret, and he did it, so he could know. "And now both of them can share that knowledge together! His father must be so proud!" she exclaimed happily.

"...Well... he would have been..." Slash stated. All at once, all the energy that was in the Pokémon practically disappeared, and replaced with a solemn atmosphere. "...He died when Black was only 10-years-old... he never got a chance to see the place with his own eyes..."

This made Nao's mood completely flip. Her face of excitement slowly faded away, and was replaced with one of shock and pity. Her harms that she had shot up like an enthralled child now slumped back to her sides. "...I... I'm so sorry... I... I didn't know..." she said quietly.

"Yeah... nobody really knows what exactly happened that day... but Black did tell us this. After his father died, and his family lost a very important member, he looked up to the heavens... and he swore by his own head that he would find the place his father had always wondered about... and he would finally discover the truth... for him." Genesect said. Even though it was almost completely hidden in the mechanical part of his voice, Nao could precisely distinguish the sadness in its voice.

Nao really didn't understand why she felt so much pity for Black. Sure, he was basically the only reason she's still alive now, but still, he was a human, she was a shiki. Then she began to feel this familiar feeling in her heart, despite it being dead. It was a fluttering feel that felt like it could just sprout wings and fly. She hadn't felt this way since she was there... in that wedding dress, with Mikiyasu right in front of her... it couldn't be... did she... love him?

No. That couldn't be it. Even if that were the case, she knew that he could never feel the same way. He was only keeping her alive so he can get more information out of her about what happened those years ago. Once he had learned everything he needed to, surely he would have no use of Nao anymore, then he would most certainly...

That's when the thought occurred to Nao. Never had she thought about what Black was going to do to her after this whole thing blows over. She was so concerned about the here and now picture that she never once took the time to consider what would happen after these things took place.

Perhaps Black really didn't know that either. At least, she can't remember ever hearing him mention anything about it. Maybe he had at one point and she just didn't hear or understand him. Even so, she had to know for sure what was going to happen.

"Hey... Destroyer?... Um... be honest with me... after Black has all the evidence he needs to fully paint a picture of what happened... what will he do to me?" she asked reluctantly. She didn't even know if she wanted to know the answer to that question.

All 3 of them froze up at that very moment. From what this action showed, they were never preparing for her to ask that question. All of them just stood there, remaining quiet, as if waiting for something to hopefully force a change of subject. "...De... Destroyer?..."

"...Nao... what I'm about to tell you isn't easy to say..." Nao's eyes widened and her soul began to chill with fear as he continued. "...Well... from what Black said, which his opinion may change, but... if things go as he planned... he's... he's going to-"

All of them turned around to face Genesect when they heard the alarm beep sound. Genesect's blaster was extending and pointing straight behind the others, right in front of itself. "WARNING. WARNING. UNIDENTIFIABLE ENERGY SOURCE DETECTED 2,000 MILES AWAY." it spoke in its fully mechanical voice.

An energy source that Genesect could pick up from 2,000 miles away? If it was 100 miles, 200 miles, 500 miles, maybe even 1,000 miles, then the other Pokémon wouldn't have given it too much attention. But to have a power so strong Genesect can literally pick it up from 2,000 miles away? That was like the Pokemon's true nightmare (granted, Nao was always taught the Metric System instead of the English Measurement System, so she really didn't know too well how far a mile was).

And Nao could tell that the others were terrified of this news. The minute Genesect named the distance, the other 2 hastily looked in the direction the blaster was pointed. "What?! You're picking something up from 2,000 miles away?!" Destroyer exclaimed. His voice seemed to have a bit of shakiness that seemed very unfitting for such a strong figure as itself.

"2,000 miles away?! There's no way that can be right! Can it?!" Slash exclaimed looking back at Genesect. (I'll give you $1,000 in fake imaginary money if you can tell me which internet meme I just referenced here)

"ENERGY SOURCE COMING. CURRENT DISTANCE: 1750 MILES."

"You've gotta be freaking kidding me! Not only is it unbelievably powerful, it's also fast?!" Destroyer said fearfully. It was obvious to Nao that however far a mile was, something had to be pretty dang fast to travel 250 of them in a matter of seconds.

"This can't be happening." Slash said, his voice full of cowering. He turned to Destroyer as he was shaking from the very thought of what that could be. "Destroyer, if that thing is really as powerful as we're making it out to be, there's no way we can fight it! It will overpower us for sure!"

With these words came Nao's time to quiver. It was just like back in that pipeline, when she was crying, begging for her life to Sadafumi. She had that exact feeling of helplessness, so scared and unable to do anything. She had been brought back, met these creatures, and was brought to believe that these creatures were literally invincible, second only to whatever god there was up there. To have one of them straight out admit that there was no way they could win that battle (one of the more overconfident ones at that) was very nerve wrecking.

"We... oh no... what do we do?" she said, slightly hiding behind a tree. She thought maybe she could hide and try to keep herself alive, but at the same time, she was looking at herself in disgust, thinking that she was being absolutely nothing but a coward. She would try to hide from this power while these 3 would fight for their lives?

_"Everything you've ever done as one of these heartless abominations you've done for yourself. You don't care about me, Mikiyasu, Susumu, or anyone else. All that matters in your world is you"_ were the words that ran through Nao's mind. It was almost as if Miyuki was right there with them, also viewing Nao's will to live as spineless and weak.

"...Miyuki... sister, I... I..."

"CURRENT DISTANCE: 1250 MILES AWAY."

That's when Nao decided to speak up. "Guys, if what you say is true, we can't stand here and do nothing! We need to get out of here! We have to run away!"

"What good is that going to do us?" Destroyer asked as he looked back at Nao. "Even if we do manage to get out of here, that thing will catch us for sure at the speed its traveling."

"We have to stay and fight... Black would rather have us die as warriors then have us flee in dishonor." Slash said as it stood a little straighter. Of course, saying these things was only an attempt to calm himself down. He really wasn't sure what Black would tell them to do in this situation.

"But... but... Destroyer, Slash... I-"

"CURRENT DISTANCE: 500 MILES AWAY." Genesect said. Even though it was now doing nothing but mindlessly spitting out this information, its mechanical body seemed to have been shaking slightly itself. Genesect, being a robot, would usually be thought of as something that had no emotion, much less be able to show it. However, Genesect, when being reprogrammed by Black and his friend, Cheren, Black had apparently requested that Genesect actually be able to eat, drink, and feel emotions just like any other human or Pokémon. The request came to life, and Genesect became a rather emotional Pokemon (well, Cheren reprogrammed it, Black was basically sitting around, telling him what he wanted).

"Nao, listen. Just hide, and stay down. If this thing somehow kills us, go back to the base and alert Black. No matter what happens, just keep running and don't look back!" Destroyer said.

"But Destroyer, you guys are my friends, and you're Black's best friends at that! I can't just-"

"CURRENT DISTANCE: 250 MILES AWAY."

Destroyer and Slash both got into fighting poses you would see in Dragon Ball Z, and Nao decided to do what she was told and tried to hide behind a tree.

"200 MILES AWAY..."

"150 MILES AWAY..."

"100..."

"50..."

When they were expecting for something to just suddenly fly by and crash into them, Genesect's blaster suddenly made a 180 degree turn, pointing straight behind it. This made both Destroyer and Slash look back, staring at Genesect's blaster.

Nao then realized that the blaster was apparently working as a scanner, which Genesect was using to locate the location of the energy. Whatever it was, it supposedly just flew behind them without them even noticing.

Genesect's blaster tilted up slightly, pointing at the air. "ENERGY SOURCE BROUGHT TO A STAND STILL, 50 FEET AWAY." Genesect said.

So it literally flew at God speed, went behind the 3 of them without them even catching on, and is now just floating there? All of them, even Genesect looked up into the air, searching for something that could be what Genesect was picking up, but found nothing. All they saw was the starry night sky, complemented by the bright full moon.

Finally, Genesect's blaster made a sudden tip down, showing that whatever it was just descended onto the ground. However, no sort of impact was made, so it seemed as if there was nothing there.

Nao was shaking with anticipation, waiting to see what happened next as she, along with Destroyer and Slash, stared at Genesect, waiting for a sign... anything...

Its blaster went back to normal, and it just stood there for a couple of seconds. Afterwards, it looked up in the air, and began scanning it with his robotic red eyes, obviously just as dazed and confused as the others. "I lost the signal... where is it?" it asked as it continued to search.

"...Wha?... What do you mean you lost the signal?!" Destroyer yelled, walking over to it. "You were pointing out some big as Hell power source coming this way!" Destroyer's wording kind of made Nao shiver, since she wasn't really over the Hell thing yet. "And now you're saying you can't find it, as if it never existed at all?!"

Slash then walked up to them and spoke as well. "I knew we should have cleaned his hardwire before we got here! His energy scanner must be on the fritz!"

"No, that's not possible!" Genesect argued, trying to justify itself. "My sensors were completely calibrated before we set off! There's no possible way that they could have been wrong! There was something powerful around here!"

"Well then where is it?!" Slash demanded as he looked to and fro. "I didn't see anything pass by here."

"If it was traveling underground, we surely would have felt something, wouldn't we?" Destroyer asked as he stomped his foot on the ground for a bit, as if he was expecting it to respond.

"And I didn't catch anything in the sky." Genesect said as it looked back up to the Celestials above. "...I don't understand. How can such a power be here, and suddenly just disappear? It defies all logic..."

As the 3 of them went on about trying to figure out what it was that Genesect had picked up and where it had gone, Nao had another idea. Instead of just being there discussing it, she decided it would be better if she tried to look for it. This thought caused her to start running the direction the energy was supposedly last felt, and search for what it was.

The trip through the woods was both nostalgic and eerie at the same time. She remembered her running in the forest with her little boy Susumu to catch glimpses of all kinds of colorful birds, but it wasn't this dead, tarnished and burnt wooded wasteland.

She remembered one time, when she was 12-years-old, when she was afraid of heights and she spent the following 15 minutes sobbing and begging Miyuki to help her down. Her older sister was down there, laughing until she finally decided to bail her out. This, however, had taken place in a luscious forest, teeming with green things and life. This wasn't anything like it.

She caught a small glimpse of the church she and Mikiyasu got married in. It was here that Miyuki gave probably the funniest and yet most humiliating speech ever to the newly weds. The church, however, was now nothing more than a ruin of what it once was.

All these memories...

What the place used to be like...

It all lead back to this...

Running in the ruination, created by the races inability to coöperate.

She didn't know how long she was running, but eventually, she came to an open field, also covered with ash and a few toppled trees to the side. She really couldn't tell what this place was. It must have been a place that was almost on the outskirts of Sotaba.

That's when she finally noticed something moving. There, in the center of the field, was a body of a woman. The body, however, couldn't be fully seen, as both its left arm, up to the middle, and the entire head seemed to be buried in the ground. Nao couldn't help but feel a bit of excitement. This person was surely a shiki that died all those years ago, wasn't she?

This girl had a hold of the base of her left arm in her right hand, and was tilting her upper half of her body to the right. It was obvious that the girl was alive, and she knew that she was stuck. Her legs and feet seemed to have worked for balance as she continued to desperately pull and tug at her limb.

Nao decided that she was definitely a shiki, and she needed help right now. She ran over to her, and as she knelt down beside the creature, she could hear the screams muffled out by the ground. It was obvious that she was confused and terrified.

Even though it took a lot of effort, Nao was able to vaguely piece together what she was saying. This is what she thought she heard: "Where am I?! What's going on?! Somebody, anybody help me!"

Nao decided to first get her arm out, then she would help with the head. Nao grabbed the girl's arm, and all at once, her struggling came to a halt at the contact of another's flesh. "Who's there?! What do you want?! Where am I?!"

Nao, trying her best to ignore what she was saying, planted her feet firmly on the ground. She then tried to throw herself back and let her weight pull on the arm. She wasn't exactly sure how deep it was down there, but it was pretty well held on to by the dirt, and she didn't seem to budge it an inch.

Despite her efforts being fruitless, she continued to tug at the girl's arm, and began to talk to it as if she was expecting it to listen. "Come on... come on you stupid arm. Please come out..." she whispered with a ton of strain put into her voice. The other girl seemed to have gotten wise as to what Nao was attempting to do, and grabbed on to her left arm again, and joined Nao in the attempt to free her limb.

It took a lot of time of straining effort, but just when Nao was coming to think that the poor girl would end up getting her arm ripped in half by the amount of force, her whole arm finally came free. All that was left was the head, which Nao tried to dig out of the ground while the girl pressed her hands on the dirt in an attempt to raise her body up.

The head was much easier to free than the arm, and in a matter of a minute, the girl shot her head and her upper body up, and sat there, her pale face seemingly stricken with agony.

After taking a look at where she was, however, the girl's face was replaced with one of confusion, and she looked around, not yet noticing Nao, trying to figure out the enviroment around her.

Nao could only stare at the girl in shock; she knew all too well who it was. It was a shiki that was rather intolerable with others, whether they be just like her or humans. Her pink hair was fixed into 2 pig-tails on each side, wearing clothes that really weren't common around Sotaba. "...Megumi?..."

Upon hearing the name, the pink haired shiki turned her face to look at Nao, and the 2 stared at each other for some time.

The girl's name was Megumi Shimizu, and she was one of the most, if not the most, savage and ruthless of the shiki that were brought into this world. Some of the shiki killed for their own lives, some, like Tohru Matou, killed so their families wouldn't be targeted by the others. Nao killed so that she might have a chance of living with her family forever as these creatures. However, there were others, like Megumi Shimizu, that killed for a different reason entirely.

She killed only for the sport of it, and delighted in the misery and agony she caused others. She felt absolutely no remorse for anybody she slaughtered, and for some time, it seemed like there was no reason to. Not only did she need to drink the blood of a human to stay alive, but she hated Sotaba and its inhabitants more than anything, all because they poked fun of how she acted and what she wore. They were always quite the natural gossipers back in those days.

Being a supernatural being that has to kill all the people she loathed to live, and not being punished for what she did? What more could anybody on this good and wretched planet possibly ask for? That was the exact mentality that kept Megumi going all that time.

However, as she was forced to see, not even the invincible are completely secure. She, at one time, found herself just like her victims, begging for their lives, but having them show absolutely no pity whatsoever. She had died the way she lived, unrepentant and rotten to the core.

"...Nao..." she said quietly. None of the 2 knew what to do. They didn't know how they were supposed to react to this situation, nor did they know how the other would. Nao remembered at one time how she once tried to comfort Megumi and how she used her words of venom to attack her. This time couldn't be any different, right? Megumi still had to be the same self-centered, uncaring, merciless...

Nao really didn't know what to think when Megumi finally acted. Instead of cursing her and trying to put her down like she had expected, Megumi had done something completely different. She actually began crying, and soon latched on to Nao in a tight hug. "Oh Nao! I was so scared! I thought I would be down there forever!" she sobbed as she held Nao in her cold, undead arms. After one time rejecting the condolences Nao had offered in their lives as shiki, the girl now wanted nothing more than for Nao to speak gentle, loving words to her.

Nao really didn't know what to do while the girl held on to her in that tight hug. Should she try to comfort her like she once tried in the past, or should she simply reject her just like she had done to her? Surely she shouldn't waste her breath trying to give her any comfort, considering how she acted.

In her life as a human, Megumi hated every single thing about Sotaba and all the people living in it. She may have fooled everyone else with her polite attitude and seemingly well-trained ability to ignore the others, but Miyuki was never convinced that Megumi had any love for her home. And as it turned out, Miyuki couldn't have been any more correct. It actually kind of made Nao feel bad for her, living in this small village that you have absolutely no care for whatsoever. The only thing that Megumi liked about Sotaba was that boy, Natsuno Yuuki, and from what Mikiyasu told her, he didn't feel the same way at all.

As her life as a shiki, she seemed to have made absolutely no change. She showed nothing but hatred to everybody, whether they were human or undead. She was absolutely nothing but a cold-hearted, blood thirsty abomination. She was so inconsiderate that even Nao, a shiki that very seldom showed any hatred, couldn't help but loathe the miserable creature.

Then again, perhaps if Nao, the killer of her entire family, was found worthy of a second chance, then surely Megumi deserved one just as well. Besides, Nao remembered when she saw her, hanging onto that rock above the furnace, apologizing and begging for anybody to save her. Perhaps she had changed after all, and maybe she was ready to make up for all the heinous crimes she committed.

Whether Nao was aware of what she was doing, she wrapped her arms around Megumi and returned her embrace. "Megumi..." she whispered as the pink haired teenager continued to cry.

Megumi almost felt a lot better as Nao returned her hug. It actually felt very good to finally feel the embrace of another, especially the arms of someone she swore she hated. That's when the guilt all came crashing back to her. "_You didn't have to be so cruel! I was just trying to comfort you!_" Those were the words that Nao had said when Megumi had cursed her just because she was trying to make Megumi feel better. She realized that after everything she had done, after every single curse and grudge she bore at Nao just because she didn't like her home village, Nao was still there, ready to welcome her with open arms.

"Nao, if I've ever done anything to hurt you, and I know I have, I'm so, truly sorry! I didn't mean any of it!" Megumi cried. Deep down, however, she knew she was lying, and meant every single venomous word she uttered against Nao. Nevertheless, she held Nao tighter to herself and buried her pale cold face into her shoulder. "Please forgive me! I swear, I didn't mean to hurt all the people who I-"

"Sssshhh... it's ok Megumi." Nao whispered in a very comforting voice. "You don't have to worry about a thing. You're safe now. It's ok."

"No, it's not..." Megumi said through broken sobs and sniffles. "I saw you down there... you were burning in those flames, all the shiki were... I hated all of you in my life, but now I feel absolute sorrow for all of you! It's all my fault they're down there! It was because I was one of them, a wretched, sinful abomination that should never have breathed in the first place!" Through these words, Megumi buried her face deeper and deeper into the fabric of Nao's shirt. "None of you deserve to be down there! There's only one person that should be down in those fires, and that's me!"

"What? Megumi, no, don't say that. What's down there is a truly terrifying place that not even the worst of villains could ever be fairly condemned to. You don't deserve to be down there, none of us do."

"Why don't I? Don't you remember all the awful acts I've committed in this world? I killed so many people, and felt absolute joy in it. It's all my fault that Koari was killed. How could I possibly not deserve to be down there?" she said while whimpering in sadness and shame.

Koari dead? Nao really didn't recall ever seeing Koari or her brother in the afterlife. Then again, maybe she just wasn't paying attention. Or, maybe Megumi was wrong, and Koari was still alive, but even if that were true, the question still pondered her mind. How could Megumi and all the others, including herself, not deserve to be in those flames for all of eternity?

After a few seconds of silent thinking, Nao finally came up with an answer that could both comfort herself and Megumi. "...Because you're here now... begging to be forgiven... and I do forgive you, for everything." Megumi couldn't even look at Nao's face as she went on. "Whoever this Creator is... I bet He only sent us down into Hell so we could repent, and be sorry for what we did... I think He only did that to make sure we understand what we did... if He really is as loving as they claim Him to be, then there was no way He would let us burn forever."

That was quite a point that was uttered. Nao had never dreamed of thinking like that before, and neither did Megumi. It was such a powerful thought that Megumi couldn't help but freeze and ponder on that for a minute. "_Is... could that be true?..._" she thought to herself as she looked back at the afterlife, seeing all those people there, begging those she cursed to forgive her to no avail. "_...Is this really what this is?... A second chance?..._"

It felt kind of sweet to Nao to be holding this poor girl in her arms, just letting her know that there's at least one person in this world that doesn't hate her, but she soon looked at the moon and remembered that she was on a schedule. "Right... I have to meet back up with Slash, Destroyer, and Genesect." she whispered quietly enough that Megumi didn't hear her. "I didn't really tell them where I was going, they're probably worried sick..."

Nao was ready to let go and try to find the others and regroup, and it seemed like Megumi sensed this somehow. Before Nao could move an inch, she removed her face from Nao's shoulder, and instead snuggled it gently on her chest, while pulling Nao gently closer to her. "Please... just hold me..." she begged. "Hold me, and don't ever let me go... not back there... I'll make up for what I did, I promise..."

It was almost really funny to look back at it. Nao and Megumi both remembered a time where Megumi made Nao cry just with her words. Now here Megumi was, being held by the same shiki she cursed like a 4-year-old that just awoke screaming from a nightmare.

That's what Megumi seemed to be, a little child that knows she had done bad. Like any child, she'll apologize and plead for forgiveness, if possible, but at the same time, she's not willing to face her punishments, and begs for mercy whenever it's time to get a timeout, which this word is used metaphorically.

This thought made Nao imagine that she was a mother again, holding her scared little Susumu in her arms, promising him that everything was going to be alright, that the world he lived in is a truly wonderful place.

Neither of them knew how long they were there, exchanging loving embraces like the Apocalypse was kick-started early, but they knew that they stopped when they heard something walking near them. They looked towards a hill right next to them, waiting to see what was there. They stared at it, not knowing what it could be.

They didn't have to wonder for long, because after a while, there was a figure that showed up on the hill, the figure of a man with brown hair. He was looking behind him, and seemed to be trying to drag something. He then spoke in a voice that was so whiney, but all to familiar to Megumi. "Grr! This stupid... inconsiderate... 'Shelter from the sun' my ass!" he whined.

Soon enough, he seemed to have slipped, and started tumbling down the cliff, leaving whatever was up there. When he landed, he did so on his back, so both of the shiki women could see the identity of the man. "Masao!" Megumi exclaimed in a worried voice as she got up and began to run to him.

The person's name was Masao Murasako, and he was one of the shiki that had died during the great Shiki Hunt. In both his life as a shiki and his life as a human, there was only one real person that could ever want to consider him a friend, and that was the gentle soul of Tohru. Everybody else really didn't like him, and for good reason too. He was always trying to say things to make others feel bad just for the pure sport of it. He was also very whiney, and never seemed to let things go if they didn't fly his way.

From what everybody knew, he seemed to have blamed every single problem of his on his little nephew, Hiromi, whom he loathed with all his heart and who he claimed to be a spoiled brat behind his back and the backs of his brother and sister-in-law. However, it was quite obvious that there was only one childish imbecile in the family, and that was him.

During their lives as shiki, Megumi was constantly abusing Masao, in both emotional and physical ways, whether it was deserved or not. She absolutely despised him, and was quite happy when she had figured out he had died. But now they were both back, and Megumi, with her cold heart of stone broken and replaced with one simply starving for love, finally had the long awaited chance to beg him to forgive her. Nao, however, decided to stay back, and leave the matter to the 2 of them.

Masao was laying on the ground, wincing and keeping his eyes closed as he over reacted over the pain of the fall. Megumi skidded to a halt, knelt beside him, and, instead of slamming her fist into his face like she would have done in the past, placed both of her hands gently on his chest and shook him slightly. "Masao, are you ok?"

Masao reacted to the voice and opened his eyes. His eyes seemed to widen as he laid eyes on the pink-haired teen. "Masao, it's me, Megumi." she said. The other shiki's eyes began to glow with an emotion, not remorse or happiness to see the girl, but of pure, unforgiving rage. Megumi, however, didn't seem to notice and went on. "Are you ok? Masao, are you hurt? Did anyone try to-"

Masao didn't at all react how Megumi predicted. Since she was willing to change if it meant keeping her out of Hell, she assumed that Masao would feel the same way, and be happy to accept her as a friend. Masao, however, remained unrepentant to the point where instead of his remourse increasing, he was introduced to a whole new level of malice against those who had ever done wrong to him. In one swift movement, he got up and balled his right hand into a fist, landing a decent powered punch on Megumi's right cheek.

This action surprised Megumi, and it also hurt her. She stood straight and staggered back a few steps as she put her hand on her cheek, which was red and throbbing slightly with pain. As she looked back at Masao, she was met with that familiar, loathing glare that she had been given by certain people during her Judgment. "...M... Masao... I... I..."

Before she could say anything else, Masao did something that Megumi had done to him on several occasions, and raised his right leg to deliver a powerful kick to the face. It made contact with her nose, right where she always kicked him in the past, and Megumi gave a pathetic yelp of pain as the kick sent her flying back to the ground. "Don't you dare call me that, you fucking bitch!" he shouted.

"Megumi!" Nao exclaimed as she ran up and got the girl's upper body on her lap. The girl kept her face down, so she couldn't tell how she was feeling. "Masao, how could you have done that? I thought you and Megumi were friends."

To this, Masao gave a cruel scoff before speaking again. "Friends?! With that whore?! I tried to be her friend, but whenever I tried, she always rejected me! She's hated me for all of her life, she doesn't even deserve to lick the dirt off my shoes!"

Megumi finally looked back up to Masao, her face filled with regret and fear. Megumi had been taking control of Masao her entire life, was she now afraid of him? It was clear that Hell completely transformed her. "It's all your fault Megumi! We could have escaped this God damn village together, live our lives away from this Hellhole for the rest of our eternal lives! But no! You spat in my face, just like every single time I tried to open up to you! Do you remember all those times Megumi?! I thought that you and I could be friends, but now I see that you never wanted that! You hated me! And do you know what?! I HATE YOU!"

These words were like sulfuric acid raining on Megumi's heart. She remembered all the times that Masao tried to open up to her, whether it was for his own personal gain or not, and remembered all the times she slandered him without any second thought. These thoughts, along with the guilt that lied in her heart and the fear of never receiving forgiveness raging in her soul, made her shake in Nao's lap. "M-M-M-Masao, I-I-I'm sorry. I'm s-s-s-s-s-so sorry." she began to say through fearful stutters. "I-I d-d-d-d-didn't m-m-mean to hurt you. I-I was only t-t-trying to-"

"Don't you lie to me, you wretched skank! I know that you always had a sick satisfaction of making me miserable! And you know what?! You succeeded! Every single day, the same shit over and over again! You're the reason I went to Hell Megumi!" He stopped for a minute before picking up a rock in his right hand and raising it up, making Megumi's eyes widen in terror. "And now... it's time I return the favor by sending your sorry ass back to the frying pan from whence it came!"

As much as any of the 2 women wanted to call his bluff, they knew that Masao meant damn well what he was saying. He would have absolutely no problem with getting the ultimate revenge on Megumi, letting her go back to that inferno while he lived on. This made Megumi cry again as she grabbed the fabric of Nao's shirt with both hands and buried her face into her stomach right below her breasts. "Please don't let him hurt me." she cried as she snuggled closer to Nao, begging for mercy. "I didn't mean to cause everybody so much pain. I swear."

"What a bunch of fat lies! Tell you what! Why don't you tell that story to your dear fuck buddy Natsuno?! That is, WHEN YOU SEE HIM IN HELL!" Masao shouted as he raised his arm up, ready to slam the rock right into Megumi's head until he effectivly destroyed her brain. Megumi and Nao both winced in feat, waiting for the blow to be made.

"Ack! What the- hey! Let go of me!" were the words they heard in Masao's voice. Nao and Megumi both looked back to see what he was talking about. Both of them were really surprised to see Masao's right hand being held and seemingly crushed by the big meaty hand of Destroyer, or in Megumi's case, a big, scary pig monster thing she's never seen before.

"Well, well, well... was little baby man aiming to hurt the poor little girl?" Destroyer said, with a cocky grin on his face that mocked his opponent's so.

"Little... baby?! Gah! I'll show you who's the baby!" Masao said as he balled his left hand into a fist to slam into the pig's jaw. "Burn in Hell you overgrown slab of pork!"

Destroyer then did an action that made both Megumi and Masao question the glorified strength of a shiki. With his free hand, he grabbed Masao's left hand, and held it firmly like the other. He wasn't trying to break Masao's hands, but he definitely kept a very tight squeeze on them; not because he was afraid that he might get away if he didn't, but merely to try to cause some pain, and it worked.

Masao was literally tearing up from the pain, and began to jerk his body back like mad in an attempt to pull his hands free, but it was no use. Destroyer had a tight grip on them, and he wasn't escaping through force. "Ow! Ow ow ow! Let go of me, you freak of nature!"

"Just 2 things about what you said to me." Destroyer responded. "Number 1: I may be a pig, but that doesn't make me a slab of pork... although... pork kind of does sound good right now... with the barbeque sauce covering the top of it, nice spices and juices to enhance the flavor, maybe a side of Pasta Roni... mmmm... good stuff."

Nao would have facepalmed if she wasn't tending to make sure Megumi didn't become to frightened. He's in the middle of holding his foe down, in a moment where he could do absolutely anything to hurt him... and because of an insult that was directed at him, he fantasizes about food... she supposed that when she thought of it at the prospective that it was Black's Pokémon, it quickly became no surprise at all.

"Oh yeah... it may make me slightly cannibal, but I don't care... love me some of Black's slow cooked pork... Number 2: ...You seem to have such a satisfaction of telling people of going to Hell." With this, Masao could literally smell the brimstone that was emitting from the pig's breath. "You like the subject of burning forever, eh?... How about I make part of that a reality for you?" With that, Destroyer took a deep breath in, ready to unleash a powerful Flamethrower on Masao, who was completely stuck.

"Destroyer, wait!" Nao said, getting the pig's attention. "It's ok, he won't do it again."

Destroyer only stared at Nao before looking back at Masao. "...Grrrr..." Even if he didn't burn Masao, he had charged a Flamethrower up, and he had to let it out.

In one powerful flick of the wrists, he threw the shiki to the ground, and looked to the sky. To release the burning energy that he had stockpiled in his lungs, he let out a loud roar as he opened his mouth and let the orange flames shoot out of his mouth and dissipate into the air.

This freaked both of the shiki out. Masao began using his arms to drag his body backwards. The fires that were bursting from the swine's breath reminded him way too much of the inferno that he had suffered in because of people like her sister-in-law and 'that faithless bitch Megumi'.

Megumi was also reminded of the fires she had just recently been spared from. Seeing this monster breathe it without any explaination whatsoever made her think that this Destroyer creature was a demon that came to retrieve what it had lost. She screamed bloody murder and buried her face back into Nao's chest, shaking and whimpering like a scared puppy.

As he continued to let loose his fiery fumes into the atmosphere, Genesect and Slash jumped down and joined them, obviously drawn by the attack. "You've gotta be kidding me! There are more of the?!" Masao said as he remained at a safe distance from the 3 (at least he thought it was safe).

After he released the attack, he looked at the 2 newly met shiki before bringing his gaze to Nao, along with the other 3. "Nao, do you know these maggots here?" Destroyer asked as he crossed his arms.

"...Um... yeah, I do." Nao said as she made introductions, first gesturing to the boy that was avoiding them. "Um... Destroyer, Genesect, Slash, that's Masao Murasako. Masao, meet Destroyer, Slash and Genesect." She then looked down to the sad display of a girl that was cuddling with her, not even turning her head to see the other 2. "Destroyer, Genesect, Slash, this is Megumi- hey, it's ok. You don't have to be scared. I promise, they won't hurt you."

Megumi, praying she could have the courage to believe Nao, shakingly and hesitantly turning her head and looking at the 3 creatures. "...As I was saying, this is Megumi Shimizu. Megumi, meet Destroyer, Slash and Genesect." Megumi stared at them for a bit and thought that maybe they really wouldn't hurt her, but soon became frightened again. Something about how they looked at her reminded her of that girl who taunted and condemned her in the afterlife.

After a few seconds of staring at these unidentifiable beasts, she immediately turned her head again and buried her face into Nao's chest. "I don't want to die... I don't want to die... they're going to hurt me... they're going to hurt me..."

"Oh Megumi... poor, sweet Megumi..." Nao said as she began to gently stroke her head with her hand.

Perhaps sweet wasn't the best adjective to describe her to most people, but Nao had seen enough to know that Megumi was transformed from the cold and merciless killer she was to an awfully sweet, gentle, and very timid girl. Now, many of you are thinking that Nao's only wasting her breath trying to comfort this girl, that it was a bunch of lies to tell her that she could ever have a chance to escape from Hell forever. However, it will be told now that if you were to meet the Megumi that she was now, whether you know what she's done or not, you would never believe that she was once a murderer.

"They were shiki like me... I just found Megumi, so I can only assume that she was just revently brought back... and... I think this is where you last detected the energy before it left."

This was critical information. "Is that so?..." Genesect asked. "Hm... very peculiar..."

"What's so difficult about it? It makes perfect sense." Slash said as he leapt up and stood on the antennas on his head for the sport of it. If Nao's really correct, and the energy came directly to where Megumi was before it vanished, then that draw one conclusion... and that is..."

Destroyer took a bit of time to think it through. He mostly thinks slower than the others, so it usually took him a while to get things down. "...Oh, I get it now! You're saying that whatever that huge energy is-"

"It's somehow bringing us back to life." Nao said as her voice was rising in excitement. "Oh my God, I can't believe it! We did it! We found out why we're coming back!"

"...Not entirely." Genesect said, causing the other 3 to look at him as he spoke. "This really doesn't tell us much of anything. Ok, we know exactly **what's **causing the shiki to come back, but does that really give us enough information to say we know? We don't know where the energy is coming from, nor do we know **how** it has the potential to bringing these vampires back to life."

That was something they hadn't thought about. They knew that there was an energy causing it, ok, but that's it. That really didn't tell them much of anything at all. Masao couldn't help but find it kind of funny, how they were so excited and now their dreams just got crushed. It somewhat filled that childish desire to see others suffer he always had. "Hehehe... so much for that... so what now? Now that you know absolutely nothing?" he asked in his usual arrogant voice.

"That's completely simple... there's one person that needs to know what we discovered here..." Slash said as he stood in the center, getting everyone's attention. "...Nao... gather those 2 shiki friends of yours up. We're going home. I'm sure Black would be more than happy to meet them.

Q: ...Alright... I'm finally happy to do this... time for my first top 5 list. Is it legal to this site's rules and regulations? I don't care if it is or not, it's part of the story, so it's fair game... so... welcome to...

Master Porky Minch's

Top 5 Favorite Shiki Characters

Now, with this, I'll be telling the character, and why they're where they are on this list. I'll also try to tell you what I think they might symbolize to me. So, let's get started.

#5: Sadafumi Tamo

Ok... I'm not sure whether Sadafumi really belongs on this list, but I can't help it. I know he was cruel, so let's go over some things why I kinda like him. Complete and total badass? Check. Pretty cool voice (at least in the English dub, I've never heard it in the original Japanese version)? Check. Complete hardcore fighter? Check. Most of all, most badass quote in the entire anime? "In order to kill these demons, we must become demons." ...Yeah, that quote alone is the basic reason why I started thinking he was awesome. He also seems to represent to me the horrors of revenge. Think about it, we're all horrified on how far he went, and the whole reason he was fighting the shiki was because they killed his father. Would we really go that far as well just to have our revenge?

#4: Tohru Mutou

Is there really anybody who's watched the Shiki anime, whether it was dubbed or not, and not feel bad for poor Tohru?... I'm not sure, I don't think so. But back to the point, Tohru was always such a sweetheart, always being the friendliest guy in the village, even befriending people like Masao. I bet you know one character that'll be in my top 5 least favorite characters... but anyway. Even when he turned to a shiki, he never enjoyed killing anyone, he only did so just so he could stay alive. He was almost always apologizing after he killed, and you can't help but feel for the guy. To me, he represents the human's will to live. We all really don't want to hurt people (I'm not speaking for everyone on that), but if it means saving our lives, we'd probably be willing to do anything... no matter how much it hurts.

#3: Seishin Muroi

Now, with most people, it's always a question of whether to go shiki or human. Seishin had a tough choice himself. Now... I wouldn't really say he helped the shiki too much until the last couple of episodes, just kind of chilling with them, but maybe you think differently... aw, whatever. He had to make a choice to, and he was such a freaking awesome person that he actually got to know the shiki, and since he was a human, he could see the story from both sides' points of view, just like I do. That and he isn't as cold and merciless as all the others. Seishin is my favorite human in the entire anime (which means my top 2 favorite are both shiki). To me, he represents our desire for knowledge. Throughout the whole anime, he's basically trying to find out his purpose in life, what he's doing here. In honest truth, don't we all?...

#2: Megumi Shimizu

Shh!... Do you all hear that?... That is the sound of millions of Natsuno fangirls, flaming the shit out of me as we speak...

Ok, now let's get this straight, ok? I know she was quite a bitch in the anime, and though I really can't bring myself to hate her, I can see why almost everyone else does. So then, how did she get on this list, to number 2 no less? Well, if you want the answer to that, read a Fanfiction on this site called _The Final Summer of Sotaba_. Sure, the author hated her too, but... I don't know, ever since I read that Fanfiction, I just couldn't stop thinking about Megumi. It got to the point where I actually began to feel for her, and how she acts here is based off how she acted in _The Final Summer of Sotaba _(maybe it's dumb to feel for her over an unofficial Fanfiction, but I don't really care). So if you want someone to blame for me really liking Megumi, blame KnightOfLelouch for it. To me, Megumi symbolizes human hatred itself. In a way or 2, aren't we all exactly like Megumi when we let our anger blind us to the point of hurting anybody without giving a damn?

(P.S.: To my dear friend KnightOfLelouch, I'm so sorry if you get a bunch of PMs or reviews raging you because of what I said... to anyone who reads this, please leave your rage to me, I can handle it... but you can still read his (or her, I don't know) story if you want).

#1: Nao Yasumori

Ok, anybody who was paying attention to this Fanfiction and my story _A Well Deserved Fate _knew that she was going to be number one on here.

You remember how I said that I couldn't stop thinking about Megumi when I read that Fanfiction? Well, I couldn't stop thinking about Nao after watching her at the last 8 minutes of episode 20.5 (which is the whole reason I got into the Shiki anime in the first place. Thank you Nao!). I just felt so sorry for her, and I do even now when I understand that at first she really didn't feel as much remorse as she did in that one part. She even went as far as to kill her own sister-in-law just because she didn't get bit by the Kirishikis... at least I think she killed her sister-in-law... Hell, I don't know. Half of what I write in these stories is all fan stuff anyway, so what the Hell? To me, Nao really depicts the conflict between a guilty conscience and the fear of discipline all too well. When we do something we shouldn't, we (most of the time, again not speaking for everybody) feel really bad about it, but we're also not willing to face the consequences of our actions, whether they're too great to bear or not.

Phew... longest question I've ever done...

So, what's one of your favorite Shiki characters, and why?... I swear, if I get a bunch of Natsuno answers, I quit (what I'll be quitting I don't know...).


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